Di's Hideout

"I don't need help. Revenge..." Swallowing hard, like reaffirming his own morality, his voice died. "Revenge is no motive I can follow."

Immediately, part of him raged in protest - he wouldn't avenge his brothers, his sisters? He wouldn't find and gather the few left alive, or try to save any forced to vampirism?

"Then don't help me," she said with a shrug, "but don't you dare get in my way."

Connan glared at her.

"What the hell makes you think I want anything at all to do with you!? You attacked me, then effectively kidnapped me, only to run me against another vampire. You haven't exactly done me any favors!"

"You attacked me, first off; second off I brought you here to patch you up, and third I didn't fucking invite him in!"

"I did not attack you - I made a gesture that I *knew* you could dodge, and I told you to kill me, or leave me there."

"If you really like I could dump you back there," she snapped, turning to face him, "now that Daemon's seen you he'll come looking and so will the others. It's a miracle you avoided them this long. Would you rather do some damage to them or just die like lambs at slaughter-like the rest of your gang?"

"You're missing the fact that I don't care, Di."

"When did I tell you my name?"

"You didn't. He did."

"Figures. Bastard."

She went to the fridge, pulled out the scotch, poured two glasses, and gave him one.

"There's your favor."

Connan sighed. "When I become an alcoholic, I'll send you the rehab bills." He raised it in a 'cheers' and drank it.

She laughed slightly and downed hers.

"As long as you don't mind the money coming from illegal sources, that'll be the next one."

"I lead a street gang- what exactly makes you think illigal will ever be a problem?"

"Good. Now, if I ask you a question, will you be honest with me?"

"Probably not. Ask away."

"Do you think there are other survivors?"

Connan looked at her, eyes dead.

"I buried one hundred and thirty seven. There have to be survivors."

"I can help you find them."

"I..." He couldn't say he didn't want to; they were his family. They'd fled, and it almost felt like a betrayal of it's own.

But he was their leader and he had a duty to fulfill. Connan sighed, giving in. "What do you want me to do?"

"Well, you need to heal up; that's the first thing. Which means I need to go out and find you some human food-that's the one thing I don't have-and you need to rest. We need to get out of here in a day or two, though. Daemon's going to be reporting to his boss whenever he gets over being turned into a pillar of flames."

She sighed.

"I'm going to show you the various weapons we use to kill other vampires. Daemon and I are harder to kill than most; we have talents which were innate in our human forms but activated when we were turned. You know your gang better than I do. Together we can probably find them. I should be able to identify them by their auras; you know where to look, and I can confirm it without ever seeing the person's face."

She poured them each another glass of scotch.

"And something tells me that they'll want to get Daemon and his group just as badly as I do."

"And you are entirely aware that, that being the case, I'll lead them to him." Connan sighed.

"One question; if you're harder to kill than most, why aren't I dead? Daemon left me, and I know...from...my gang... that these guys are thorough. He should have seen me dead."

"Because he had drained me of most of the blood I had in my system; when he last saw me, I was unconscious and chained to a statue. Speaking of which," she tore off the collar, "he wanted to finish me off and figured you'd finish yourself off."

"I don't do suicide. But... I suppose, if this is gang related, that's why they left survivors - provided they're still surviving - because they figure we get the lesson."

"I think he figured you wouldn't be able to clean yourself up. You did look rather a mess, and he doesn't know I robbed a hospital last week. As for the survivors-I'm pretty sure they would have scattered to the four winds. They won't be easy to find. That's probably the only reason there are any."

"Probably true. He should have figured I have practice at recovery though; street kid and all."