LORD KOSAN'S COUNCILMAN

Within minutes, I picked up the dark flame moving rapidly toward us. It reminded me of the first time Harv and I met vampires. I was in a tree too.

Back then, I was doing all I could to survive. Right now, it was more like I was getting a front-row seat to watching real-life hunters at work. It was like seeing an urban legend come to life.

I was still reeling from the excitement. Who knew I'd meet real-life hunters? And so far, they dressed and talked and acted just like I imagined! They even had matching all the smells and backstories and everything!

It was nothing like how my meeting with Lycan legends had turned out. I mean, so far, The Great Teacher turned out to be River's old dad. The Tyger King turned out to be Bell - but only because he could beat up the other Tygers.... And also because none of them wanted the position anyway. The First Wolf, Shiro turned out to be some metrosexual dude in a suit... I could go on and on. Like seriously. Either I was imagining them all wrong, or they were seriously misrepresented in those hand-painted books.

But these hunters were legit - unshaven rough looking guys that smelled like something that crawled out from the bad side of town. Throw in Tessa with a magic stick and melodramatic backstory, and Hellsing with his s***ty attitude and laboratory origin story... They were exactly like how hunters on TV were like. Good TV, anyways.

For some reason, the same TV writers who based every werewolf on Uncle Andre and every vampire on a random Shakespearean character with fangs somehow got the hunters down pat.

Anyway, I settled on my branch and waited.

{Vampire approaching}

3...2..1...

Eh? But this vamp didn't just bash up the trail into the trap. He paused.

"Who's there!" Tessa shouted when the red stone on the end of her staff glowed in the direction of the vamp, "Show yourself!"

The vamp stepped out then.

Omo. It was playing out EXACTLY like on TV. I waited for the vamp to introduce himself. No, wait, that would be really cliche, wouldn't it?

"It is I, the Rogue Councilman." The vamp announced at its own entry. He was even costumed EXACTLY as how I'd imagine a rogue vampire would dress. A black trench coat with a lot of excess fabric that made quite a statement with the Winderhill breeze going on. His jet black hair in a loose ponytail, his red eyes, and pale skin. As a gust of wind lifted his coat, his clothes were exposed, clothes that could once have been a rather well-tailored suit befitting a wealthy councilman, but were now disheveled and stained with dark brown patches.

But I think this was what triggered the first red flag. Not only was the rogue vamp extremely cliche, and dressed for its part, it was suspiciously clean. How could I explain it - if this guy was still walking around with dried blood from yesterday's meal, why didn't he smell like yesterday's smells? Even if he was scentless, his clothes and coat should have picked up a million smells from the way he looked. But I couldn't pick up a single bad smell. Next to the hunters, this guy was clean as a whistle.

I sat up and studied the vamp more closely. His flame was quite medium in size. Quite old too.

"You hunters say you have captured the killers who murdered my spawn in cold blood?" The Rogue Councilman.

Seriously, with a name and lines like those... our production value had just hit B-grade.

"Is that them?" The Rogue Councilman took a closer look at the two boys in the silver cage. Fluffy smiled and waved a little, "Hi."

And then there was a shot and the Rogue Councilman went down. Just like that. Someone - either Mor or Gar had made a bullseye through the rogue vamp's heart.

"We got him?" Dan sounded very surprised.

Hellsing held out an arm to stop Tessa from going any nearer, "Let me check."

"He didn't even dodge." Mor stood up from his position looking bewildered like he had just won the jackpot.

Ignoring Hellsing's intention for her to stay back, Tessa moved over to look too.

"He's probably just playing dead." Fluffy warned them from the safety of his silver cage.

I watched the vamp's flame burn quietly away. He wasn't dead, but it looked like he was really dying, and it didn't look like he was going to fight back. WTH? And that was when I noticed it - another flame hidden within the Rogue Councilman's. I recognized it at once.

I KNEW THE ROGUE COUNCILMAN WAS A FAKE! Not only was he not a rogue, he had his Sire's flame onboard.

I dropped down from the tree and stepped out into the clearing. Ki was quick to follow behind me.

"Heal the vamp, Ki. Quick." I ordered.

"S*** sweetie. What are you doing?" Hellsing growled when I pushed past him.

"Taking over. You guys messed up." I said.

"Wait, this is our kill!" Dan protested, but Cobra appeared behind him and held him at knifepoint.

"What is the meaning of this?" Tessa demanded.

"Wait, Tess." Gar came out now, but only because Torque had pushed him out at gunpoint, "The wolves are on to something."

"What?" Tessa asked, "What's going on?"

"Could be a trap, Tess." Gar continued, "Everyone, stand down for now."

Fluffy and EJ got out of the cage and all the hunters were rounded up and gathered over, most of them at knifepoint. Ki took out the silver bullet, rather roughly - like with a dagger blade, but the vamp healed over once the silver was removed.

"He's not a rogue." I tried to explain for the benefit of everyone present.

And then I bombed dominance and took out my phone, "Lord Kosan, if you can hear me, you better answer. Or I'm going to call Maria."

Suddenly the Councilman stood up, but only in its hanging puppet form, his head hanging down from his neck and his arms slouched.

"Once again, your perception impresses me little blue alpha." The Councilman answered, but this time in Lord Kosan's voice.

I knew it... vampires were terrible at scripting.

I growled, the little hairs on the back of my neck standing. I really hated dealing with vamp lords, even in proxy, they were creepy.

"Why is your councilman going to attack Winderhill?" I demanded, "I'm due back in school in 15 minutes, so you better be quick and convincing me, or else I'm calling Maria anyway."

"What can my spawn do, hm?" Lord Kosan asked sounding rather amused.

That was true. What did I expect Maria to do? Shriek her head off at her sire for the rest of his life? BUT, Lord Kosan did revive his councilman to answer me... so.... here's hoping that he doted on his daughter the way Beta Lucas doted on Lizzy, "Let me call her and ask."

"Wait." Lord Kosan answered quite seriously suddenly, "You and I have no grudges, Little Blue Alpha. I'm sure this must be a misunderstanding."

"So I misunderstand that your councilman was going to pose as a rogue and attack Winderhill?" I asked.

"Ah, that... " Lord Kosan's dark flame flared and swallowed the Councilman's flame whole. The Councilman came alive suddenly and straightened up to smile at me, "I promise you, Little Blue Alpha, things are not as it seems."

Gah! I flared. Hellsing decided to give the vamp the hard roundhouse kick. Lord Kosan didn't dodge and the poor Councilman went down again. Did Vamp Lords not know how to dodge? Or did they just not dodge because they were Vamp Lords?

"Stop it, dummy!" I yelled at the guy. Hellsing ignored me.

"Someone stop him." I said.

By someone, I meant one of my own wolves of course, but to my surprise, Tessa said, "Hellsing, stop."

And Hellsing stopped. He continued growling though, but he drew back, "S***. Tess! Why?"

"I think... I think the wolves are helping us." Tessa said.

You think?

"True." Gar nodded then, "There's no other reason why we're still alive."

Torque lowered the gun he had on Gar's back. The hunters raised their hands now and my wolves lowered their weapons.

"So it's a truce?" Tessa asked me.

A what? Oh... hunter talk.

I think if I were to follow the level of cliche the current script was taking, I should have answered darkly, "Yes - for now."

But I didn't have time or patience to play along. I gave her a curt nod, my attention was on Lord Kosan, "Get up, Lord Kosan. With all due respect, I know you can still hear me."

The councilman dragged himself up. He was properly battered though. I think Hellsing kicked out a rib or two.

Okay, play it cool. If I sounded too desperate to know, I was sure Lord Kosan would hold back. Stupid vampire mind games! Grrr...

"So what's the deal with Winderhill? A few guys died here, but it's not like you care." I pointed out. I remembered Maria had brushed them off as nobodies.

"My good councilman requested my help." Lord Kosan answered, "He has an interesting proposition."

So this was a matter of amusement to Lord Kosan?

"The most interesting thing was that the proposition was submitted to him by a hunter." Lord Kosan smiled indulgently at me, "You don't happen to know what the hunters are planning, do you?"

I looked at Tessa. She looked alarmed, "Don't listen to the vamp! He's trying to turn us against each other!"

Which would be exactly right IF we were really in a vampire hunter TV show. But this was real life, Tessa, not a cliche TV script.

Apparently, no one else seemed to have gotten the memo though.

"What a pretty stone." Lord Kosan smirked, "What a special magic that even I cannot breach completely."

Hellsing stepped in front of her growling.

"And what an abhorrent freak of nature." Lord Kosan continued in a real show of disgust.

"No, that would be you, Lord Kosan." I stepped back in his line of sight, "Stop changing the subject. Explain things properly."

And stop talking like a villain in a vampire hunter TV show. Do you want to end up with a stake in your heart by the end of the episode?

Lord Kosan sighed, "I want an explanation too."

I looked at Fluffy, "Do you have any idea what's happening, Fluffy?"

Fluffy's smiling mask didn't falter, "A few, but most of them point to a hunter orchestrating the attacks on Winderhill for more sinister gains."

"Which hunter, Fluff?" Ki was wearing his smiling mask too. He looked around at the hunters in our group.

"What does it matter?" EJ's wolf smiled now, "The more the merrier."

"No. EJ." I said quickly. Seriously! Someone should put a leash on that blood wolf!

"You can't kill all the hunters!" I tried to reason with him, "You might end up killing the innocent hunters too."

At this, everyone laughed. Even the hunters.

"Oh, sweetie." Hellsing shook his head, "There's no such thing as an innocent hunter."

"Shut up, dummy!" I pointed at the red-eyed not-quite-vampire dude. He made me feel quite stupid, "You know what I mean!"

"Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it isn't there." I said, "Which is more possible? For a hunter to be good, or a vampire?"

I turned to look everyone in the eye, and then I answered my own question, the words surprising me even as they fell out, "We all have to make choices every day. And with each choice, we get a chance to choose good."

Okay, so our vampire hunter show was just taking a sharp turning point into an episode involving angsty moral dilemmas. If it really does play out this way, it was my bad.

Tessa's stone glowed.

"Someone's coming." I said, I could sense a few rogues.

"Weak rogues." This was Boo, but I accidentally said it aloud. What I meant to say was, "There are rogues with them."

"Hunters too." Lord Kosan was kind enough to add, he looked at the hunters with us, "Friends or foe?"

"Foe." Hellsing decided, "There are no hunters who are friends of hunters."

What did that make Tess, Mor, Gar, and Dan, you dummy? But no time, our potential foes were getting too close for comfort.

"Okay, places everyone!" I decided, "We'll run through everything from the top. Tessa, call out who's there whenever you're ready."

And I signaled - warrior style - for all my wolves to get back into positions.

Fluffy and EJ returned to their cage. Mor kindly helped them shut the cage door so they didn't have to touch the silver with their bare hands. Experienced pros knew how to take initiative like that.

Lord Kosan looked most amused.

"Are you going to join us, Lord Kosan?" I asked, "If not, I'll just kill you now, and we'll use your Councilman as prop."

"I live to serve." Lord Kosan demurred. Yeah right. More like he lived for new amusement. Stupid bored old vamp lords.

{Fluffy, see if you can figure out who's the hunter behind the attacks in Winderhill. The rest of you stay alert.} I mindlinked my wolves as Ki helped me back up the tree.

{I cannot believe you've convinced the Kosan Lord to play along, goddess.} Ki commented by my side.

{Who would have imagined that wolves, hunters, and a vampire lord would cooperate like this?} Fluffy added.

{If anyone stops cooperating, can I kill them?} EJ asked. EJ's wolf was surprisingly single-minded.

{Permission granted.} Ki was suddenly back into capisce mode, {Please be advised to block off mindlinks. We cannot be sure Tessa's magic would completely ward off Lord Kosan's manipulation.}

No one needed to be told twice. I reinforced my mind block to be doubly sure. Personally, I couldn't believe I could be so careless in the presence of a Vampire Lord. Come to think of it, why the hell was I even messing around with hunters?

I blamed Boo. Lately, Boo had been exhibiting a sense of fearlessness that would one day get me killed.