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The Beings were fast, but Edgar was faster. The two creatures raised their weapons to deal with the anomaly before them; Edgar fired two shots in quick succession, sending their weapons flying. He stepped out from behind the building and sent two more shots against the sides of their helmets. He then began backing away. With their full attention on him, the Beings dropped the human between them and started to move toward Edgar. Edgar turned to run, barking a command at Isabelle before leaning into a full sprint:

"FEED."

The Beings shot after him without hesitation.

Isabelle had no opportunity to process what happened. The collar went to work. She stood up as the human was getting up. She pulled her helmet off and dropped it in the street as she approached him. The human, Marcello, turned to run, but tripped over the shackles binding him, sending him back to the asphalt. Isabelle was upon him in seconds. She grabbed his shoulders and lifted him, then struck his temple with an elbow with such force, it left him in a daze. With no struggle to contend with, Isabelle spun him around and drove her fangs into his neck. She wrapped her arms around him and cradled his head.

Blood flooded her mouth. She drank in deep gulps, working to quench her thirst with swift efficiency. She felt his life force flow throughout her body, revitalizing her. Her senses sharpened. The stink of the man filled her nostrils, though it bothered her not, so sweet was the nectar she drew from him.

Marcello went limp in her arms; she had little trouble supporting him due to her preternatural strength. She felt his heart begin slowing down, and some part of her wondered if she should stop or finish off this traitor to his kind once and for all. The choice, however, was not hers to make. His heartbeat dropped below a certain threshold and the collar compelled Isabelle to end her feeding. With a wave of resignation and reluctance, she let him drop. The collar ceased its work.

Isabelle looked around. In complete darkness, she saw everything in high detail. The evil smells emitted from the refuse and garbage lining the streets were amplified to a high degree, but there was no losing her lunch. Strength flowed in her veins; as a vampire, she was faster and stronger than any healthy human to a large degree, but much more so after having fed. And her hearing was honed: with relative ease, she could hear Edgar's retreat and pinpoint his location. She turned away from the human, picked up her helmet, and took off at a run, donning her helmet as she went. Once secured, she leapt to the fire escape of a nearby building, threw herself hand-over-railing until she reached the roof, then raced after Edgar across the rooftops of smaller buildings and the empty floors of larger ones.

Continued after the break

Edgar ran with precision, ducking around buildings and leaping over walls at the end of alleys, angling always away from where he presumed Ceres would take the humans. At the beginning of his run, he thought to keep a slower pace to ensure the Beings would remain on his tail, but learned there was no need. With each twist, turn, and leap, Edgar wondered how evenly matched they were against his strength, agility, and endurance. The Beings appeared to have little trouble keeping up with him at his full sprint. Were they pacing him? Or was his pace straining their abilities? He had no way of knowing. If he could evade them, there might be a chance he could follow them back and discover the location of their base of operations. At the moment, he was unsure if this was possible, and he couldn't run forever.

Edgar half expected the entire hive to appear. From his observances and conversations with Ceres earlier, he determined these Beings to be in sync with one another. Where trouble arose, the entire colony would arrive, and this was due to the hive mind Edgar imagined they operated under. However, so far it was only the two Beings in close pursuit. This was a good thing.

The bad thing was his lack of planning. Edgar had taken a massive gamble on how their initial interaction would fall out, and he was grateful it turned out as he hoped. But his planning ended when he began running. He expected to outrun his pursuers and double back to follow them home. He did not expect them to display such athleticism; if he could not outrun them, he would have to face them. From his vantage and knowledge, it seemed he would not fare well against them both. He needed a plan, and he needed one soon.

Edgar ran down an alley and crossed a wide boulevard, missing the context of the signs as he passed between two large buildings. The alley came to an abrupt end with another building, effectively cutting off his forward motion. Non-plussed, Edgar veered to the wall on one side, and as he approached the end, leapt into it, maintaining his speed to run against it into and across the short distance of the enclosing wall, onto the opposing wall, and back down onto the asphalt behind the Beings, who scrambled to come to a stop and turn around. This bought him a modicum of time and space, but it wouldn't be enough to lose them.

Edgar exited the alley and began crossing the wide boulevard once again when two shots rang out, ricocheting against the helmets of the Beings behind him. He spun to watch as the two creatures stopped to determine the source of the shots. Not waiting to see how they would respond, Edgar turned and shot down the boulevard, veering to side of the street where he just exited and leaping to crash through a second story window. He landed on his feet and dropped to the ground. If the Beings gave chase and came through, he would slip back out the window behind them.

But there was no pursuit. He listened as two more shots were fired; the Beings scuffled across the building and seemed to separate. With caution, Edgar poked his head out the window and turned his attention to the top of a building across the street where he determined the shots to originate. He watched as Isabelle stepped off the roof and plummeted to the street where she landed on her feet, rifle held at the ready. Edgar hopped out the window, landed, and jogged to meet with her.

"¡Pinché Cabron!" Fucking asshole! "That was fucked up, Edgar."

The rich tenor of her voice struck Edgar, though its blow glanced off with no apparent effect.

"Mi culpa, Isabelle. Lo siento," said Edgar. I'm sorry, I get it.

He stood there listening for some time, and then determined the Beings were retreating based on the patterns of their sounds. Now was their chance to discover their home.

Isabelle stood waiting for more explanation, a bigger apology, anything more, but came to recognize she would receive no such thing when Edgar gestured to follow and began moving in the direction of where the Beings had gone. She knew he couldn't see it, but she rolled her eyes anyway and followed after.

"You better not pull shit like that again. I'm fucking serious."

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