8 Day 4 (day/night)

While she waited for the sun to set, Sinn returned to the main cabin she was renting. Even though she had arranged with Ella that she would go back to the mansion willingly, Sinn looked around carefully as she checked the spare gun she kept hidden on her bike. Before she went near the small building she wanted to be as sure as he could that there weren't any unwanted surprises from the mansion or anywhere else lurking around.

Crouching down amongst the bushes in the shade of the trees she looked down at the cabin and reached out with her powers. The sun being up meant she was safe from Vampires but Werewolves could move around at any time of the day and were almost as strong as a Vampire even if they weren't Alpha enough to change with the full moon still weeks away.

Sinn knew she was good, better than good, with most weapons and hand to hand combat but no amount of training helped much if something that could toss a truck and rip you in half with its bare hands got a hold of you no matter how much weight you could lift in the gym or what your scores were on the range.

She couldn't see any of the tell-tale signs that there was anything lurking in the cabin though, no prickles of cold, no flares of red for Vampires or greens for Werewolves. Unfortunately her abilities were limited to sensing Vampires and Werewolves and there were far more supernatural beings than those in the world that all seemed to have a beef with her.

Even everyday normal humans could be a problem but Sinn was willing to bet her combat skills against most of those though and Vampires and Werewolves were the most likely to be after her in Bitten. Even so, as she moved towards the cabin she thumbed off the safety on her gun and kept her guard up just in case. Not that relaxing it was something she ever really did. It was more a case of putting it up stronger than getting it to where most people thought they were prepared. Even when she slept it was usually with one hand on some kind of weapon.

She was hard pressed to remember when she had last woke up feeling so relaxed as she had earlier, let alone in the arms of another person. Blushing at the memory, Sinn built her guard up higher and blocked out all thoughts of the gorgeous blonde woman, Yoanna, and just how good it had felt to feel the softness of a woman's body against her own.

Yoanna. Sinn rolled the name around her mind, restraining herself just in time from letting it spill from her mouth. She couldn't remember hearing it anywhere before or reading it in all her endless research. But whilst she didn't know the name… she knew the face. Not up close. She frowned as a flash of blue eyes came back to her riding the back of a tumble of pain and screams, fear and the roar of an engine that faded to… peace? A feeling of deep connection?

Sinn rubbed at her temple in confusion and pressed the memories… visions… whatever they were back with firm strokes of her fingers and determination. She couldn't afford to get distracted by things like that, there was too much riding on her. Still… before she moved forwards she looked back, picking through her memories to more times, less troubling ones, when she had caught glimpses of the same blonde watching from afar as though following… and even a couple of times when she had followed what could well have been a trail laid by her that had led to her sorting out a bigger problem… never getting close but always catching a glimpse.

No! Sinn pulled back on the thoughts. Just because she found the Vampire beautiful that didn't mean she could go looking for signs that she had been helping her when the reverse was more likely to be the case. Led her so she could find and take care of something worse? It was more likely she had been leading her into a trap… wasn't it?

Just because she was having doubts… okay, had come to accept, that just about everything that had been beaten into her all her life wasn't true, that not all Vampires and Werewolves were evil that needed to be wiped from the earth. That didn't mean they were all good either. Just because she had woken up to a very beautiful, very naked, silky soft skinned, blonde haired goddess with sweet tasting blood, that didn't mean she was looking to live the supposed 'American dream' complete with white picket fence and ten cats with her.

Sinn stumbled only slightly, her brow creasing in confusion at her internal pep talk. Something had seemed wrong about it even before it got to the cats but she couldn't quite place it and she didn't have time to analyse that too as she opened the door and stepped inside.

She could tell that someone had been in the cabin even though everything looked as it had when she had locked the door last. Maybe she was being paranoid and there was no need to move out, but paranoid was a trait that had kept her alive more than once and finding the keys to her bike and cabin in the wrong pocket of her jacket seemed like a damned good reason to assume that someone had at least looked for the place. Sinn already had another place over on the other side of town though, hopefully no one had found that one yet or the lockup where she kept most of her weapons.

It was testament to just how often she was in Bitten, fighting whatever 'big bad' Octavia had become embroiled with, that she felt the need to keep so many weapons there ready to go.

Leaving the cabin, Sinn locked it back up and made her way back to her bike as cautiously as she had left it. Making her way into Bitten, Sinn went to the lockup first and picked out a few choice weapons for when she went to the mansion. Not too many though, she knew that they would check her thoroughly as soon as she got to the mansion and she really hated to give up the best of her guns and knives so easily, not when they already had so many. The blades especially hadn't come cheap as most were custom made to make the most of her height and skill level as well as having as high a silver content as possible without compromising the strength of the blade too much.

Sinn knew that Ella would let her have everything back, she always had before, but that was assuming that they got to the point where she was leaving willingly and not having to fight her way out.

The bar across from the lockup called to her, the neon sign in the window giving a wink of invitation that she reluctantly turned her back on. It was a Werewolf run bar which made going in a risk at any time but even if it wasn't, Sinn had never been a heavy drinker. She had never felt the need to steady her nerves so much either and it was all that Yoanna's fault.

Just thinking her name had the image of the blonde popping into her head again and made Sinn groan. She could still smell the Vampire against her skin and feel her body pressed against her own. More troubling was that instead of repulsing her and making her run for the nearest shower, the smell of her light perfume and that fragrance that was all her made Sinn ache deep inside and stirred a longing to bury her face against the Vampire and just breathe her in. And the memory of that slender but curvy and well-muscled body, her touchable soft pale skin and hair and that beautifully stunning face relaxed in sleep against the pillow of her shoulder made her body tingle and that was without thinking about how sensual and right it had felt to wake with their legs entwined, every inch of their bodies touching and still feel like it wasn't close enough.

As though he could sense her sinful, unbidden, thoughts, the second phone she kept hidden on the bike rang. Even though Sinn knew he was the only one that had the number to it, Sinn looked at the caller ID with a sense of rising horror. Reluctantly she pressed accept more in case he had spies watching than from any real desire to talk to him.

"Have you done the job yet?"

"No, I ran into a few problems." His question gave Sinn hope that he had no idea what had happened. Of course it could just be his way of testing her to see if she was falling in line with his plans again.

"Problems? Probably that bitch Ella again! Maybe I should just send someone to kill her and have done with it after all!"

"You said you would leave her alone!"

"Only if you kill that new one, remember? As usual though you're getting side tracked by personal feelings for someone. Love is a weakness! Or have you forgotten what happened your Mother!"

"Stay away from Ella and I'll do my job. This is the last one though, I'm done!"

"You'll be done when I say so and not before! If you want your precious friend to stay alive, you'll do well to remember that! And don't even think of warning them! I've got friends in low places too! Take out that new bitch, prove to me that I can trust you or I'll have Ella and every single last one of them killed!"

Sinn's whole body was quivering with anger as the phone went dead and it took every ounce of restraint not to smash the phone against the nearest wall. Why couldn't he just leave her alone?! Twice in her life she had nearly managed to get away from him and the role he wanted her to play. And both times someone close to her had died at the hands of Vampires. Her anger and the need for revenge at their loss had dragged her deeper into becoming a Hunter.

And now Ella was being threatened by the one person she should have been able to trust. She could keep Ella safe by killing Yoanna but what then? The threat to her life would always be there and for some reason the thought of killing Yoanna gave Sinn no joy at all no matter how much her feelings for her was troubling Sinn. Once, not too long ago, just that she was a Vampire would have been reason enough but, thanks to Ella, Sinn's black and white outlook on them had changed. With Yoanna though… there was a world of difference between not wanting to blindly kill something just because of what they were, which was how she had been trained, to waking up in the arms of one of them and wanting nothing more than to crawl straight back to her again.

Making her way to her secondary cabin, Sinn busied herself as best she could, trying to keep her mind off troubling thoughts while she waited for the sun to set. But even after taking a shower, cleaning weapons and meditating her mind was running around in circles.

Sinn knew she would be walking into a trap but she just was unsure as to what kind it was going to be. If it was just Ella and the others it would have simply been a trap to try and get her to accept that not all Vampires were evil. It was Yoanna that was the unknown though. Obviously she was powerful enough that the Vampires of Bitten had given her free reign to do whatever she wanted. Something she would have thought impossible with Marcus around but she had even managed to have him locked up as punishment for hurting her?

And why had she done that? What did it matter to her what became of her? 'Sinn is mine', those had been Yoanna's words. Words that had almost made Sinn topple from her hiding place before she was ready. Not that dropping down when she had been ready had been a very good idea. In the history of bad ideas, dropping down into a house of fully awake Vampires and Werewolves was at the top of Sinn's own personal 'Dumb Idea' list. Even if she had managed to kill Yoanna there had been no chance of walking out alive even if Ella had stood up for her like she usually did.

As a plan it had been doomed to failure even before Ella had stepped in her way as her moment to pull the trigger had been lost the second she had turned around and realised she's seen the blonde before. Trying to pin down the memory of where and when though was once more like trying to catch a wisp of fog in her hand. It didn't matter how hard she grabbed for it, it just drifted away. She was there though, on the edges of her life, a glimpse of blonde hair, the outline of her face, that perfect way she dressed and carried herself. Sinn even knew the shape and colour of her eyes even though she couldn't, shouldn't, remember being close enough to see them before.

Sinn groaned, closing her eyes as another sudden flash of memory struck, similar to before but different images. Ones of seeing those beautiful cerulean eyes looking at her from inside something… a car? She had felt? Fear… anger? But not towards her. Then… fascination… more? The memory slipped away but before she could open her eyes there was a flash of blue eyes gazing down at her from a face smeared with blood.

As far as Sinn knew she had never had her mind clouded by a Vampire's gaze. Oh it had been tried but she had never come across one powerful enough to do it. At least she didn't think she had. How would she know? She'd always just assumed that if one managed it they would just take the opportunity to kill her. A Vampire being powerful enough and having things other than killing her on her mind just hadn't occurred to Sinn.

Powerful, ruthless, those were all traits she expected from a Vampire. What didn't gel in her mind was the woman she had woken up next to. That sleeping was all she'd done… at least as far as Sinn knew… she had been naked and had felt too comfortable in Yoanna's arms. And, oh god, that light kiss Yoanna had brushed across her lips before she had been called away for a phone call had been sensual as hell and Sinn was ashamed to admit that she had liked it and not even the flash of memory of her covered in blood had dimmed it.

She had no problem with people's sexuality, everyone had the right to be happy. It had been many years since she had thought of herself in any kind of a sexual way though. After her boyfriend and then her Mother's murder Sinn's life had been consumed more than ever with training. There was little room or desire for friendships let alone relationships with other people… how could she risk anyone else's life by pulling them into her world even for a one night stand? And she had found out the very hard and painful way when she was fourteen what her ultra conservative Father thought on the subject of same sex relationships and that had been down to nothing more than a rumour at school that she liked girls. If he found out she had slept, even just literally, with a woman, let alone a Vampire, he would probably try to kill her again.

Realising that it was quickly getting dark outside, Sinn took another shower and pulled on fresh clothes. Her leather jacket was pretty much ruined by all the blood… that she had the feeling all the blood was hers, Sinn didn't want to dwell on too much. She hadn't been lying earlier when she'd told Ella that she remembered the blood but she only remembered what was in front of her eyes. As much as there was on the jacket, if it was all hers, there had been far more than she realised and she wasn't sure how she wasn't dead. Sinn had the feeling she had Yoanna to thank, or blame, for that.

Fishing around in a bag she pulled out another jacket. One thing she had learned over the years was that it always paid to be prepared with the extra clothing when being around such a bloody business. And even though blood was hell on it, she preferred the leather for protection when riding her bike but luckily blood didn't show up on black and she had cultivated a list of very forgiving cleaners. Anyone seeing her usually thought her monochromatic wardrobe was down to some kind of Goth chic fashion statement but it was very practical too.

While she knew she had, reluctantly, promised Ella she would take no weapons, Sinn reasoned that she had to get to the mansion first and there was no way she was leaving the cabin without protection. Ella knew the game though, they both did. They would search her and find some of the weapons and miss others and at the end of the day, assuming she made it out, Sinn would use their searches as a way to prepare better hiding places.

Part of that arsenal was the clothing she wore. Religious artefacts, crosses, holy water… that stuff didn't work on Vampires and she had seen people pay with their lives for assuming that it did. Silver though, that stung like a bitch when used right on many different kinds of supernatural creatures, Werewolves mostly but Vampires had a problem with it too. With that in mind, her weapons, even the grips of her guns as well as the bullets themselves, were laced with silver. As were her clothes. As much as the thread as possible in the jacket had silver in it, not enough to kill but it could burn when used right and it was amazing how many places a garrotte could be hidden.

Just in case she was being watched, Sinn rode around the outskirts of Bitten so it would look like she was coming in from a different direction. It in no way helped her feel any less like she was sticking her head in a noose but it did help to delay the inevitable for a little while longer. But there were only so many streets she could ride up and down before she finally had to turn her bike in the direction of the mansion and her tyres were crunching along the long, sweeping, tree lined driveway.