Three masked figures appeared from the shadows in front of me.

If it hadn't been for the overwhelming smell of Harris's blood, I would have known they were there. They ran straight at me, presumably not knowing what I was, something they learned as soon as the first of them reached me, a knife in his outstretched arm, on the blade of which I could still sense the blood of the late Colt Harris. I grabbed my attacker's arm, twisting until he screamed and dropped the knife. Then I slammed his body into the wall with bruising rather than lethal force - with Harris dead, I needed at least one of these guys left alive. Being attacked wouldn't be so bad if it got me a better informant than Harris. The next two had the smarts to attack together, and I felt a sharp thrill as I fought them off. It had been a long time since I'd been in a proper fight. Maybe I needed this.

But I definitely didn't need what happened next. The three weren't alone. More masked men appeared, coming to the aid of their comrades. From the corner of my eye, I saw two of them helping the man I had taken out. I should have killed him when I had the chance. But I had little time for regretting that or for thinking about keeping any of these guys alive as a possible source. I moved like lightning between them, kicking, slashing with the knife I had taken, snarling as my attackers encircled me. Then, I felt the bite of a blade cutting into my arm and I howled as it burned like cold fire. I staggered back from my attackers in shock, clutching at the wound. That hadn't been just steel, that had been blessed silver, and if they all had weapons like that, then I could be in serious shit. Blessed silver was used to torture vampires in the bad old days; just the touch of it stung, being cut by it was almost unbearable.

But I wasn't going down without a fight.

"Alright then, which of you assholes wants a piece of me?" I've never been good at backing down when I'm in danger.

A throwing knife whirled through the air and I dodged, moving like quicksilver, feeling the blade pass through my hair as I went. I lashed out in the direction from which it had come, more in anger than in expectation that I might hit someone, but the men shifted back and the circle closed in from the other side. Now, they had me trapped like they were baiting an animal. One lunged forward, stabbing his blessed silver blade into my back then ducking back before I could grab him. When I made for one of them, those on the other side of the circle darted in, wounding me again, so I was almost blinded with agony. The pain seethed in my veins as blood soaked my clothes and I felt my legs start to give beneath me. I swung my knife around in a circle of steel, managing to drive them back for a moment. But right now, all it seemed I was doing was buying a few more moments of pain. The bastards had me.

I roared out my defiant anger at them, and the circle closed in again, edging forward for the kill.

Suddenly, my roar was answered by another. From the far end of the alleyway, Kael and his friend charged like a pair of rampaging bulls, scattering my attackers from around me. One made a wild slash for Kael, who dodged the blade, grabbed the man by the collar, and hurled him bodily back into his comrades like a chef tossing pizza dough. Not to be left out, the other guy - my dance partner - laid into the pack, moving between them with a speed I could barely credit to a human. They were grossly outnumbered and yet the masked men seemed unable to get near them. Whenever the masked men stabbed, the dancer was no longer there; on the rare occasions they landed a blow of their own, Kael's came back with interest.

Though my senses were clouded by pain and blood loss, I was lucid enough to know that no human could fight like that. They were too quick and too strong. And yet, they were human. I knew it, I could smell it, and if I needed further proof, then it came when a blessed silver blade grazed Kael and he barely noticed - no vamp could have stood that.

With Kael and friend making life difficult for them, the masked men didn't stick around long. They ran off into the night before any of them got seriously hurt. Kael instantly returned to me.

"You alright?"

"I'll live," I grimaced. "As much as ever."

"Glad to hear it. This is my buddy, and roommate, Milo."

"Pleased to meet you," I said to the dancer, who smiled at me as he came over. "And I really do mean pleased."

"You alright?" asked Milo.

"People keep asking that. I'm fine." I pushed myself up off the wall against which I had been leaning, and almost fell down.

"You don't look fine," observed Milo.

It's easiest to think of blessed steel like vampire Kryptonite - it doesn't just hurt like a living hell, it drains our strength, too. It wasn't easy to come by, as it was that double whammy of illegal and expensive. Those masked men had been armed by someone who knew about vampires, had money to throw about, and didn't care about the law. Just the sort of enemies I really didn't need.

"How'd you find me?" I asked.

"Milo said you'd run out," said Kael. "Then I just followed the screaming. Figured that had to be you. I hear I missed the dance."

"You had a call," I said, snidely.

"He can't dance like me anyway," put in Milo.

"Not many people can," I acknowledged.

My legs started to buckle and I used the wall to prop myself up.

"You're coming home with us," said Kael.

"The hell I am."

"It's close to sun up and you're nowhere near your home."

Perhaps I should have been surprised he knew where I lived, but after he had learned my name and number without any help from me, I was done being surprised by what Kael knew. That said, I did want to know how he knew. I was also curious about who these guys were, what these guys were, and what their angle was.

"Okay, fair enough. I'll stay one day." Hopefully, that would be long enough to answer some of my questions.

"Good," smiled Milo. "It'll be nice to have company. What about him?" He indicated the body of Colt Harris, whom I had more or less forgotten.

I shrugged. "You can bring him along if you want, but I don't think he's getting up again."

"Who was he?"

"Nobody of any importance."

Kael looked down at the corpse. "Somebody thought he was important enough to kill."

I didn't like the way he stressed the word 'somebody'. "Look, I didn't kill him if that's what you're suggesting."

"I wasn't. But you did follow him out, didn't you?"

"I'd rather not talk about it."

There was a moment when I wondered what their play was going to be, but Kael's face softened as he relented. "Okay. You've had a hard night and we need to get you home, but I hope one day you will trust us enough to tell us."

"That's up to you," I said, hinting that I wasn't the only one keeping secrets.

"We did save your life."

"And I said thank you."

"Actually, you didn't," said Milo.

"It was implied."

I kept playing the bad ass a bit, but the truth was, that I was grateful. I was grateful they had saved my life, I was grateful they were giving me a place to crash, and I was grateful that they weren't pushing me on what I knew about Harris and how he wound up dead in an alleyway. In my current state, and with their impressive strength, they could have pressed a hell of a lot harder. Maybe I didn't trust them yet, but I was actually finding it hard to maintain that suspicion.

Kael and Milo lived not far from The Dark Bar, in a district usually favored by vamps. That raised more questions. Despite my intense encounter with Kael last night, they didn't strike me as vamp lovers. They didn't have the track marks on their neck left by fangs that addicts get. Some vamp lovers, of course, prefer to keep it strictly sexual, but they don't get a lot of say in the matter when a vampire is hungry, and strong though this pair were, no human gets between a vampire and a vein.

The apartment they shared was nice and definitely not cheap, which sparked yet more questions. Maybe I could use those less probing questions as a gateway to the ones I really wanted to ask.

"This place is incredible. What do you guys do?"

"We work in security," said Kael, casually.

"Like, bouncers?" I suggested. "Like, really well-paid bouncers?"

"We're in management," smiled Milo.

"Too bad. You'd make good bouncers."

"Thanks. I guess."

"I just meant," I came around to my point, "you guys are strong. Like, way strong. And don't act like you don't know what I mean."

"We hit the gym most days," acknowledged Milo.

"Don't bullshit me, Milo. I may be weak but I can still kick your human ass."

He raised an eyebrow. "You reckon?"

I genuinely didn't know - with him inhumanly strong and me uncharacteristically weak, maybe it could have gone either way.

"You're not vampires," I went on. "I'd know if you were. But you're almost as strong. No weight training gets you like that - I don't care if you're doing reps in your sleep. So... what the fuck are you?" Sometimes the direct approach is best.

"I said we work in security," Kael replied. "We actually own a high-tech security firm, specializing in bio-enhancement. And we are the best adverts of our product."

"Walking billboards," added Milo, flexing unnecessarily but impressively.

"Seems to work," I nodded.

"We are a bit stronger than the average human male," Kael acknowledged. "A bit faster."

"A bit more stamina?" I suggested. Impressive as he had been in the alley tonight, he had been more so in a different alley the night before. I had walked out of both alleys on wobbly legs, though for very different reasons.

He grinned back at me, knowing what I was talking about. "That, too. The whole package.”

I nodded. "It's an impressive package."

"Your bed's through here," said Milo, and I wondered how much he knew about Kael and I.

Did I believe what they were telling me? It was certainly plausible. The existence of vampires living around humans had made bio-enhancement a serious growth industry, as humans were nervous co-existing with creatures who saw them as food and could tear them limb from limb if the mood took them. There was also the sex thing - both human males and females got off on vampire partners, and while part of that was the thrill of doing something dangerous and forbidden, having the strength and stamina to keep up with vampire partners was something many vamp lovers dreamed of.

But even if that was part of the truth, then I didn't buy it as the whole truth. However strong the guys had been back there, however well they had fought, I had still gotten the sense that they were holding back somehow. If that were the case, then these were the most impressive bio-enhancements that I had ever seen. Maybe it was a new technology, but I hadn't heard anything about it, and as far as I was aware, there was only one group in the city that had access to anything that even came close to Kael and Milo. I wasn't prepared to accept that yet, or even say the name, but the possibility fluttered at the edge of my mind like a trapped butterfly.

If the worst turned out to be true, then was I putting myself in danger by staying with them? It didn't feel like it as I gratefully pulled the covers over me - having first checked the curtains to make sure there wasn't a crack through which light might creep. I felt oddly safe and comfortable, and all the more so for knowing the guys were next door. And if shit got real? Well, however enhanced they were, I remained the most powerful vampire in this city, I could take them. Just let me get a good day's sleep first.