2 The Girl On The Subway

"What do you see?" the voice asked.

"I'm in a subway and a girl is sitting on the opposite side."

"How does she look like? Give me details." the voice implied.

"She's wearing a grey color hoodie, and her head is covered by that. She's fidgeting with her fingers. She then rubs her sweaty palms on her jeans and looks outside the window. There is no view, just lights. A tear escapes her eyes, as she looks at a photo that she just took out of her pocket. She slips it back into her pocket. She wipes her tears and removes her hoodie."

"Take a clear look at her."

"I've seen her face." Thien gets up abruptly.

"Why do you do this?!" Sean keeps a hand on his chest. "Never get up abruptly in the middle of the profiling. That's the rule!"

Thien smirks and grabs his jacket. "I'll ask Lynn to send a mail. You will soon receive all her details."

"Alright." Sean nods.

There are three kinds of vampires - one, who act like humans, two, who act against humans, and three, who are neither. A vampire negotiator falls in the third category. Our main responsibility is to find the human beings who are enslaved by vampires and help them get out of it safely. It's a risky business. Vampire negotiators die every day. I am Thien, and I am a vampire negotiator.

"Brother Thien!" Lynn calls out.

"Humm?" Thien replies while going through his laptop.

"I've prepared the file on the client." Lynn passes on the file to Thien.

"Brief me up." Thien keeps the file aside.

"Alright." Lynn positions herself and faces Thien.

"Name - Ann, Age - 21 years old, Family status - adopted by Aunt, one biological sister and a cousin brother, Studies at Bangkok University." Lynn pauses and glances at Thien.

"Go on," Thien says.

"Her sister signed a slave contract with Dawn. The client seems to have discovered this and has sighed a slave transfer contract with Dawn." Lynn moves towards Thien's desk.

"Brother." She goes on. "They both are going to die aren't they?" she frowned.

"Not unless we find them." Thien flips the hourglass.

It was midnight and Ann had followed Min all the way to Moonlight again. Min didn't seem in the right state of mind. She seemed as if she was hypnotized. After she went inside, Ann stopped in her tracks, she was fighting an internal battle. She was too afraid to enter the club as she had run away after signing a deal with that Dawn but now that Min was still involved in this matter again, Ann had no choice but to accept her fate. She was about to enter the club until someone grabbed her arm in order to prevent her from going inside. The lights were dim in the alley where he took her. She almost thought that he was a pervert until she saw his face.

"Aren't you the guy from yesterday?" Ann smiled with a ray of hope glimmering in her eyes. He nodded in agreement.

"So you are a vampire?" She asked. He nodded again.

"Can you leave my hand? She asked. He shook his head. "Why?" She furrowed her brows.

"It's not safe." He replied. She tried to get her hand out but his grip was strong.

"Let me go!" she shouts. His eyes widen and he immediately covers her mouth with his hand.

"Are you crazy?!" He whispers shouts. "Vampires have very strong senses. I'm sure half of the vampire population here heard you." She stops squirming. "We need to leave before Dawn catches us." He sighs. He begins to leave but stops when she doesn't follow him.

"Are you coming?" He raises his brows.

"No!" She replies.

"Ann." He walks towards her. "I know you don't trust me but I assure you that I will save both you and your sister but right now, I need you to cooperate so that we can come up with a solution." Ann ponders for a while and then nods. Thien grabs her arm and carries her on his back towards his car. "Get inside the car. I can hear some footsteps approaching us." Ann was shocked by the speed at which he ran.

Ann watches him as he fastens her seatbelt. "Don't get out of the car. No matter what." He says.

Ann watched Thien surrounded by a group of vampires. He was outnumbered. She tightly held onto the strap of the seatbelt internally hoping for a miracle to happen. Thien approached the vampires with great speed and almost nothing was visible to Ann's mundane eyesight. Suddenly she saw Thien being pushed onto the hood of the car by some vampire. Her eyes were filled with horror. Thien looked at her from the side and immediately grabbed the vampire by his neck and bit him hard. He pushed the vampire and threw his body aside. Ann gulped her saliva as she saw Thien approach the car with heavy footsteps. His hands were covered in blood and so was his mouth. He swiftly gets inside and drives fast. Ann sunk deeper into the seat in fear. He glanced at her and then at the road.

A car was following them from behind and bullets were being shot at them. To Thien and Ann, this night may never end. Thien dodged the bullet as he changed the direction. Ann was too scared to react. She just wanted all of this to end. A car matched the speed with Thien's and the mirror came down. Dawn smirked and lowered his sunglasses. "Thien!" He shouts. "It's dangerous to drive this fast."

"It's dangerous to drive with sunglasses at night," Thien replies. Dawn's men shoot bullets at his car. Thien makes Ann duck down. "Don't move." He says.

"Thien!" Dawn shouts.

"Now, what is it?!" Thien asks irritably.

"If you stop now. I might as well leave you."

"What are you bullshitting?" Thien laughs. "We both know that only one of us will get out of here, alive." Thien pulls out his gun. "And that's me." He shoots into Dawn's car. He moves away from Dawn's car. Dawn's car crashes into some of his men's cars.

After they cover some distance, Thien stops the car. "I've stalled Dawn and his men for now. But they will find us with the trail of your blood's scent."

"So what do we do." Ann yawned.

"There is a hotel nearby, we will stay there. You can catch onto some sleep while I will watch out for you."

"Don't you feel sleepy?" Ann asked.

"Vampires don't sleep." He replies.

Ann lies down and looks at Thien who was mentally absorbed in some deep thought. He glanced at Ann from the glass door in the balcony. "What happened? Not sleepy?" He asked.

"It's not that." She replied. "It's just that I don't feel at ease."

"How do I make you feel that?" He asks which made her blush.

"Why is your face red? Are you sick?" He touched her forehead, she immediately pushed his hand away.

"No, I guess I'm feeling hot that's why." She turns her face away.

"I'll switch on the air conditioner." He switches on the air conditioner and sits on the couch. As he looks through his phone. Ann peeks at him through the blanket and then covers her face. Thien could feel her eyes on him but he just ignored. His mind wandered off to the time when he saw her fear him. He felt bad as he thought that he might be the reason for her not being able to sleep. It was pretty obvious for her to fear him, this wasn't the first time and that was an unavoidable situation back there but he still felt upset about it.

He closed his eyes and rested his head on the couch. As the morning approached, Thien, prepared to take shift Ann from their current location as although he deceived the senses of his enemies, it was still unsafe to stay in the same location, longer. Thien recalled how he had rubbed his blood over Ann to prevent her scent from leaving traces behind. Thien sensed that Ann was awake and was staring at him. He slowly turned and looked at her through the window. He made his way to her. "Let's leave this place. We can't stay here any longer." He said and she nodded in agreement. Ann followed him to the parking lot. As they reached, Ann was surprised to see a new car.

"Where is your car?" she asked.

"It was badly damaged so I asked the authorities for a change." He puts on his shades.

"Where are we going?" Ann asked.

"We are going to my place." He replied.

"You mean your home?!" Ann was surprised by his response.

"Yeah. It's probably the safest place for now and it'll buy us some time until we come up with a solution."

"Last time I checked, you're a vampire negotiator which means you negotiate on behalf of your clients. Am I right?" Ann raised her brows.

"Yes," Thien replied.

"Then just do that. Why are you getting so 'involved'?" Ann forced on the word 'involved'.

"You are my client and you're safety is my priority. If you haven't noticed, Dawn is very aggressive, as seen yesterday. Let me tell you something." He stops the car nearby. "Moonlight is the most influential gang in Bangkok. We've had over 100 cases of missing girls. I've been directed by the authorities to protect you and negotiate with Dawn. The rest will be handled by them."

Ann's heart sunk. All she could do is think about Min. Thien couldn't help but notice her agitation as he saw her fiddle with her fingers. He just ignored and focused on driving. After they reached he got Ann a glass of water. While she drank water, she looked around his spacious living room. Thien grabbed a seat opposite Ann. Her stomach grumbled loudly which surprised him. Ann let out an awkward laugh.

"You must be hungry." He said. "Let me know what you would like to have. I'll order it for you."

"I'll just make myself instant noodles if you have any." Ann pulled the sleeves of her hoodie to cover her hands which were cold because of the unusual temperature at Thien's house.

"I don't eat." Thien looked straight into Ann's eyes which made her feel intimidated. "But don't worry I'm not gonna eat you." He laughed. Ann sighed. "So what would you like to have Pad Thai, Khao Pad, Som Tam?" He reads from his phone and raises his brows at Ann.

"Som Tam," Ann replies.

"Okay." He smiles.

When Ann eats, Thien looks at her with fascination. "Can you not look at me while I eat?" She says, getting awkwardly. "I'm sorry. I just found it fascinating to see you eat." Thien scratches the back of his head. He gets up and leaves. Thien goes into his study and opens Dawn's file. As he looks at Dawn's file, something hits him suddenly. He takes a peek at Ann who was busy eating. He closes the door of his study

"Hello, Lynn," Thien speaks.

"Yeah?" Lynn replies.

"I want you to send in any files you have on Dawn."

"Okay, but why didn't you come to the office?" She asked.

"I'll tell you when the time comes." He replies.

"Alright," Lynn says.

Thien hears a knock on the door and he immediately hangs the call. He opens the door to find Ann. "Sorry to disturb but where is the washroom?" Thien tilts his head and looks at her.

"Follow me." He says.

Thien was working on his laptop, Ann watches him silently. "Do you want to read a book?" He asks.

"Do you have comic books?" She looks at him with bright eyes.

"No, but I have wifi." He smirks. "Here, you can use my tab." Ann takes his tab and browses through it. She wasn't able to distract herself so she looks at him. Thien was busy with his work. He suddenly noticed a pair of eyes staring at him for a long time.

"Now what is it?" He asked while looking at the screen. Before Ann could reply, there is a loud knock on the door. Thien signals Ann to hide inside while he goes to take the door.