"Now be a dear, Marcus, and tell my acquaintance here how a coven leader gets his meals?" Ana purred. Inwardly, she wanted to take a step to the side, away from whatever Kris was about to use on Marcus. One couldn't be too careful when it came to one's survival, and she didn't want to be anywhere near the receiving end of whatever torture Kris had planned. Marcus' eyes widened again.

"Why don't you tell him?" he asked, although his voice had a desperate, almost hysterical edge to it. "You know, too! You lived with the family for long enough!" He looked from Ana to the hunter. "Tell him!"

"My dear baby brother," Ana replied, still in her 'enforcer' mindset, "he didn't ask me. He asked you." She ran her fingers gently down the side of Marcus' face again, this time just barely dragging her nails down his skin. That was the only warning she would give him: if he didn't cooperate, she would start to use her nails, and her blades, to make him cooperate. She glanced at Kris, almost as if asking permission, much like she would have in the old days, when she worked for Caine.

Kris nodded, moving back enough that Ana had free range to do as she liked. "Go right ahead, I need to make sure I have two or three of these guys to do the damage I want." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small handful of them. He moved a bit farther away and worked on making them easier to rip open and pour, for when he would use them on Marcus.

"Just answer the questions, Marcus. Make it easier on all of us." The hunter had to admit he was curious as to what wonders Ana would enact on the younger vampire. Judging her as well-equipped to take care of him, Kris hummed as he gathered the silver knives from the corpses of the vampires he'd taken out earlier. He made a mental note to call upon his hunter buddies to burn the bodies as soon as he was finished with Marcus, and Ana was far gone so they wouldn't catch her.

Ana gave a small, slightly-insane smile and turned back to Marcus. By this time, Marcus looked frantic, although he didn't try to bolt even when the hunter backed away. Ana was too close, and she grabbed him by the wrist before he could run.

"It really is best if you just tell us," she crooned softly. With her free hand, she reached back and pulled out one of her silver-edged knives. Gently, she pulled it delicately down Marcus' face, leaving a thin, blistering cut. She was about to make a second cut, much closer to his eyes, when Marcus finally gave in.

"Bloodhounds!" he shrieked. "Caine calls them his bloodhounds! They scout out and bring back humans for the family table!"

"And how often does Caine send them out?" Ana asked, staying her blade for the moment. It made sense that Caine had his underlings bring the food to him, and it also made sense, considering she'd sat at the family table less than a day ago and had seen the humans that were being 'served.'

"Once a week," Marcus replied quickly. "Maybe more, if he needs to."

Ana glanced at Kris again, waiting to see if he would need any more information from Marcus. While she waited for him, she absently took her knife and cut a few more lines into Marcus' flesh, underneath the cut that Kris had put on his chest. After a moment or two, ignoring Marcus' yells, Ana had left a bit of a 'note' on Marcus: 'Ana's Pet.'

"Bloodhounds, huh?" Kris murmured to himself. "And these bloodhounds, do they take the prey to him immediately, or are they kept somewhere until they are needed? And if they are kept, where?" He glanced at Ana, unable to help an amused grin at the words carved into the vampire. "I need to know where, Ana. Once we know where, we can move forward."

He pulled his phone out of his pocket, and began setting up a text to send to the Hunters Guild about the numerous almost fledgling vampires laying only a few feet away. "And we need to get a move on before these idiots on the ground decide to try and revive."

"Why should I--" Marcus started. He yelled out when Ana created a neat slice across one of his shoulders. "I don't know! Okay?! Happy?! I don't know where Caine has them kept!" The carved words on his chest had already healed into scars, thanks to the silver on the blade that had made them, but the slice on his shoulder would take longer. It was still bleeding.

"Make sure you're telling the truth, Marcus," Ana warned. Delicately, she licked his blood from her knife, then made a face and spit it out. She never did like the taste of vampire blood, especially not from any as young as Marcus. He was barely past his seventy-five year mark, really, so he didn't taste like cool, liquid power like the older ones did. He tasted like a combination of old, stale salt water, with a little bit of copper mixed in with the distinct taste of 'vampire.' Old blood, but not the good kind of old blood.

"I swear, I don't know where the thralls are kept!" Marcus insisted.

"Thralls?" Ana latched onto the word.

"That's how the bloodhounds work, they enthrall them," Marcus explained. He spoke as fast as he could, trying to make himself valuable.

Kris cataloged the information away, finishing up the text and saving it as a draft to save when they left. "Bloodhounds keep the prey in a thrall, to wait until Caine is ready for them. Seems pretty straight forward." He pocked the packets of 'salt' and offered Marcus a sickeningly sweet smile. "Thank you for all your help. Is there any more information you can offer me and amazing Ana?"

One of the earlier stabbed vampires twitched, and Kris kicked it in the side hard. It froze, but it was slowly reviving, like the rest of them. The hunter heaved a sigh and grabbed the longer of the blades, the one he used against Marcus specifically and began the process of stabbing each fallen vampire in the heart cavity, if only to hold off the revival a bit longer. It was a tedious process, but one that would get rid of any frustration the hunter had left from dealing with a vampire who didn't have the information he needed.

"You're never going to get away with betraying the family!" Marcus spat at Ana. "Caine will have you hunted down and killed!" He stared up at Ana, as if waiting for her to somehow 'come to her senses' and beg not to be sold out to Caine. She just gave him a cold little smile.

"Marcus, sweetie," she said, sheathing her knife, "You're assuming I care." Standing up again, she planted a foot in the middle of Marcus' chest, just under the cut and carvings from earlier, so that he wouldn't be able to get up yet. "Now. I'm going to let my acquaintance here do what he wants with you, and I'm going to make sure you don't go anywhere." She leaned down so her face was closer to his, putting most of her weight on the foot on his chest. "And you do remember, Marcus, that I never let anyone run while I worked for Caine. If you run, I will catch you, and I will tear you apart. Don't think I won't."

Really, it was just for intimidation, than anything else, but she did mean what she said. She could, and would, run him down if he tried to escape without being let go by her or Kris, and she would make it so he couldn't run again.

Kris pulled out two of the packets from his pocket and checked to be sure they were still prepped. He glanced at Ana, making sure there were no visible injuries or wounds. He put the top of one in his mouth for holding, ripping the top off the other and let the paper fall to the ground. He held it above one of the larger cuts in Marcus and offered him a large grin. "Now, Ana, be careful, as I've been told vampires tend to thrash quite a bit when subjected to this and I'd rather you didn't accidentally get any on any wounds you may have."

Leaving the warning as it was, he dumped the whole packet onto the wound. The vampire immediately let lose a deafening shriek. Marcus's limbs failed about, clawing at anything he could reach, ignoring the cuts from the silver knifes pinning him down. The grainy substance was causing so much pain it locked out everything else.

The hunter watched as it disappeared into the wound, working its way through Marcus's system much quicker as he was a young vampire. Once he could no longer see it in that wound, Kris ripped open the second container. He could almost watch the mock-sodium chloride spread and absorb all the liquids in Marcus, his skin shriveling like a raisin. He glanced about quickly, making sure no one was about to walk on their little party and this time sprinkled the substance into the wound. The roar was loud enough to cause a ringing in Kris's ears, but he was completely absorbed in the effects of the 'salt' on a vampire's "blood".

Ana took a step or two back to watch the spectacle. She was kind of curious to see what would happen, since she knew very well that 'salt' packets from fast-food places weren't 'real' salt. It burned like salt, but it wasn't real.

The physical reaction in Marcus, though, was as intriguing as it was disturbing. Part of her reeled back when he shriveled up, knowing that the same thing would happen to her if she got salt in her system. But at the same time, it was fascinating in an objective way, to see what it would do to one of her kind. Marcus was younger than she was, by quite a bit, but the general result would be the same regardless.

Reaching over, she touched a finger to a few stray grains of 'salt' and then touched them to her tongue.

"Fake salt," she commented, "but it does the job." She wrinkled her nose and spit off to the side, to get the taste out of her mouth. The saltiness of blood was one thing, straight-up salt was something else entirely.

Kris nodded as Marcus was so dry, so frail he probably could have poked him with a stick and the vampire would wither away. He stood up, brushing his pants and hands off, blinking slowly as he ran over the information he had. "Okay, Ana, you go feed, I need to call my crew and do some clean up. Text me whenever you're ready to do more searching."

He quickly counted the number of vampires lying on the ground, practically dead and unmoving, and pulled out his phone. He sent the previously saved draft with the location and began the process of arranging the bodies in a easier access mode. He didn't even bother to check if Ana had left, trusting the vampire to know how to get out of there quickly.

As the other hunters arrived, he began directing them through the process of vampire removal, pointing and making specific requests of each hunter, knowing their specialties. A couple glanced questioningly at the withered Marcus, but didn't ask, having been trained that if the not-salt had been used, then the vampire had information needed, but it wasn't their job to know.

Kris took a deep breath, resisting the urge to reach up and feel the spot that Ana had bitten. He didn't realize how dangerous it truly was, the fact he completely blacked out and had no control whatsoever. He'd always been told that even if someone was bit, they could fight back, they could pull away (risk ripping out their neck). But if what he experienced was the truth, then why were the expert hunters telling the trainees incorrect information.

He made a note to speak to one of the trainers, with the hope he or she wouldn't freak out over the fact he was bitten. Even better, if he could find the Guild's Harbinger, the one who had given him this mission, then the questions wouldn't be so troublesome, and he wouldn't have to lie.

Ana took a breath and closed her eyes, shaking her head slightly. Kris was right, she'd wanted to go hunting after this whole thing with Marcus was done. Sliding back into her normal mindset, she nodded to Kris and left. She needed to get away before the rest of his hunter friends appeared.

She wandered the Strip for a little while, meandering along the alleys at an easy pace. She wasn't quite hungry, per se, but she did want to get something into her system before she bedded down for the day in her hotel room. Dressed the way she was, though, she would stick out in any of the clubs and casinos, so she would have to get a little creative with her hunting.

After three unwitting blood donors, Ana made her way back towards her hotel, taking out her cell phone to check and see if she had any waiting messages. She had one from Mary and Veronica, saying that they'd headed back home and would wait for her there, but she put that information back on the back burner for now. She had more important things to worry about.

Kris hated it when he had to visit the Guild. Sure there was the bright white room where all the trainees usually stayed, and where most of the trainers can be found, but the true guild leader, the Harbinger, was never in the most simplest of places to be found. The hunter watched as the others disposed of the bodies and then began the process of hunting the Harbinger down.

The Harbinger ended up 'working' at a restaurant in the Caesar Shoppes, and the only chance Kris had to meet with him was through eating there. After sitting at the specified table, and ordering a small meal, the waiter sat across from him. The Harbinger didn't look like anything special, but that was the beauty of the set up.

"What do you have to report?" He questioned in a whisper.

Kris began the explanation of how he partnered up with Ana, the issues she had with the current Vampire lord, his encounter with a minor horde, the subsequent bite from Ana and the interrogation of Marcus. Kris kept his voice low, his eyes observant, making sure no one was attempting to pay too much attention to them.

After a minor pause, the Harbinger nodded. "Follow with the lead Marcus has given you. I'll follow up on getting more of us spread around, see if we can't get more eyes out and about. And be careful with this Ana of yours. If she bit you and drank your blood, who knows what effects that might have on her interaction with you."

"Which reminds me," Kris hummed before describing the feelings and what happened when Ana drank from him. His description had the Harbinger leaning forward, eyes wide.

"That's not a normal interaction, Kris," the Harbinger bit his lip. "There might be something in your blood that makes your reaction different. Or maybe this is because Ana is an older vampire than your are used to. But I don't want you to experiment with this. Be careful, please."

Kris agreed and quickly 'paid' the 'waiter' before strolling out of the Shoppes. He had some more exploring to do.

While she was wandering the Strip, Ana stumbled across an unfamiliar vampiric scent. She knew the scents of those in Caine's family, and they were the ones who ruled the Strip in the ways that mattered to other vampires. This scent was new, and still smelled mostly human, so it must belong to someone newly turned. It was strange, though... Ana would have sworn that the scent was almost TOO new. Most human adults inevitably ended up smelling slightly like preservatives and pollution, given their environments, and this scent... didn't.

A little wary, now, she pulled out her phone and tapped out a message to Kris.

I think I may have found something. It doesn't seem right. Can we talk?

She didn't ask him to meet her anywhere. She figured that he might be with others of his own kind, and had written the message accordingly. No names, no details, no locations. Just a simple message. Once she sent it, she did a little bit of preliminary tracking. The scent was strong, and remained so over a mile or two of the Strip, so she was confident she'd be able to find it again once she and Kris talked.

Kris glanced at the message when he passed the Monte Carlo, reading it as crowds of people passed by. He glanced around, not spotting anyone or anything that might be interested in the text before responding.

Call or meet up? he sent before pocketing the cell once again.

He sat on one of the nearby planters, glancing about as if looking for someone. That tended to remove any suspicion from Vegas Strip wanderers and shoppers. It was still early enough that people weren't completely drunk, but still sober to think things through.

While the Hunter sat, watched, and waited for a response, he vaguely wondered what happened to Zechariah before shrugging off any worry. He was a dhampire, he could take many things before Kris would have to worry about him.

Ana responded to the text as soon as she got it.

Tell me where to go, she said. She felt the uncomfortable prickling sensation on her shoulders that someone was watching her, so she kept the message simple and vague. Something wasn't right, and she knew it, so she kept her guard up as she started to meander again. Once she knew where to go, she would chose a direction, but for now she wandered in a vague spiral, always keeping a mental tab of where she crossed the strange scent and which direction it seemed to be heading. It was joined at one point by a more familiar scent: this one she recognized from her days as part of the 'family.' That scent stayed for a little while with the other one before disappearing again, but the new scent stayed strong. That unnerved her, because it seemed to her that someone had turned a new fledgeling and was setting them loose too soon. She glanced around as she waited for a new message to come in with her directions.

Kris didn't even give the phone a chance to finish with its ringtone before checking and responding to the text. He related his position of being in the front of the Monte Carlo, and even which planter he was sitting at. It was the easiest, from there they could move to somewhere more remote and easier to discuss dangerous topics.

He took a deep breath and smiled at the man walking past, covered in glow sticks and carrying a yard long fruity alcoholic concoction. Once he passed, Kris watched a girl in overly skimpy clothing with a hint of a fang hidden between her blood red painted lips. His eyes narrowed and he wondered faintly if vampires could get drunk off intoxicated blood. While he was normally obligated to help the man, he knew if the man stayed in a public place with friends and remained 'sane' there wouldn't be an issue.

The Hunter entertained the idea of calling the man back and giving him a 'prophetic warning' against women in skimpy clothes and bright red lips, but it wouldn't do any good. All he could do was sit and wait for Ana.

Ana only glanced at the text message just long enough to see where Kris was waiting for her, then she closed her phone and headed towards the right place. She still had the strange scent in her nose, so she would be able to find it again if she had to. And she was pretty sure she would need to find it again, even if Kris didn't want to follow up on it. It rubbed her the wrong way that much.

It didn't take her long to find the stop that Kris had specified. As she got closer, she came across the scent again, which made her a little nervous. She didn't like having such a strange newborn scent around, especially when it didn't have an older scent with it to tell her that the newborn had a guide. If she had to guess, would even think that the newborn was... She shook her head. She didn't want to think about that possibility until she could run the idea by Kris. She relaxed a little when she saw him sitting on the planter. She hadn't realized until then that she'd been fighting off an irrational worry that he'd been hurt, even though she knew he could take care of himself. Hell, if he really tried, he couldn't probably take her down if he wanted, and she was no pushover.

"Did everything go smoothly after I left?" she asked as she sat down next to him. She stayed vigilant, glancing about every once in a while. The strange scent had faded again, but it hadn't left. Whoever the scent belonged to, they were moving around.

Kris gave a faint wave, smiling at the sight of the fed vampire. "Hey," he adjusted in his seat, reluctant to admit that the planter was becoming uncomfortable. "The clean up was simple, I luckily was sent the others who specialized in such a thing and made my job easier." He made a vague gesture towards the Caesar's Shoppes. "I managed to contact the Harbinger and he's pleased with the progress we've made so far." His smile widened, showing teeth. The Hunter couldn't hold his happiness at how effective the partnership had been so far.

"How was your feeding? I think I spotted another of your kind about to go after some guy in glow sticks. Is it typical to go after the ones who call enormous attention to themselves?"

"Some like the partygoers," Ana replied offhandedly. It wasn't anything to get upset over. "I'm glad everything went smoothly for you, and I apologize if I made you uncomfortable at all with my little... regression." It wasn't quite an act, and it wasn't quite a full-on mental backtrack, but it was still something she didn't quite like. "My feedings went well tonight, but... I came across something a little disturbing while I was out and about." She hesitated, and then continued, "I came a cross the scent of a newborn. In and of itself, it isn't anything to worry about, since newborns are fairly frequent, but this scent was strange. It was a newborn scent by itself, which means that the sire wasn't there as a guide." She paused a moment to let that sink in, and then went on. "The most disturbing part of it is that... unless I see this newborn for myself to disprove it, then I would swear that the scent was a child."

Kris waved off her obvious discomfort at the topic. He was well aware it was necessary at the time, and he had no issues whatsoever with it. The hunter offered her a smile, hoping it would help calm her before she continued. At the mention of a newborn, Kris's eyes narrowed and he focused completely on the vampire. "A newborn without a guide, this is disturbing." It sounded like something out of the horrible horror movies they played for wannabe-hunters, or something in the book of What A Hunter Does Not Want to Encounter.

And then comes the curve ball. A child vampire. Kris feels his heart stop at the thought of it. It was the worst idea possible: a child, a blood drinker, a murderer. Kris jumped from his seat, staring at Ana in shock. "Are you sure? Are you absolutely sure? We need to find it if you're serious. It could hold the answers to all our questions. Not to mention a child should not be out and about on the Vegas Strip, vampire or not."

"Do you think I would joke about something like that?" Ana demanded when Kris asked his rapid-fire questions. "I wouldn't have brought it up if I wasn't at least partially sure. I know what I smelled, and it wasn't normal." When she paused to take a breath to continue talking (since that was really the only thing she even needed air for anymore), she caught the scent again and held up a hand. Her eyes narrowed as she glanced around. "Wait a moment... I smell it again, and it's closer... fresher." Closing her eyes, she took a deeper, more analyzing breath. Soap, muslin, a little shoe polish, roses... But nothing she associated with adults: alcohol and preservatives and the like. She definitely smelled new blood, though, which was a scent that clung to newborns for a while after their turning.

"A girl," she said finally as she opened her eyes again. She was certain of that. In her experience, all little girls wanted to be 'grown up' and smell like roses. "I can't pin down an age, though, she could be anywhere from six to twelve, but definitely a newborn." She kept glancing around as she spoke. The scent was uncomfortably close to them, and she didn't like being caught off-guard.

Kris cringed at Ana's snappy tone, realizing his own blunder when he let the anxiety and pressure of the situation get to him. "I'm sorry, but can you blame me?" He began pacing. "I'm fucking worried, I wasn't truly expecting to find anything of this nature. I wasn't told how to respond in this situation, Ana." He took a shaky breath and shook his hands, as if trying to get rid of all the extra energy he had.

With his back to the Vegas Strip, Kris gestured towards Ana. "A girl, a little girl, who is a vampire, some where on the strip." He took a deep breath and bounced on the balls of his feet. "And we have to find her, before she can lose herself to the blood lust." He would have continued, but the intense feeling of someone watching him.

The hunter whirled about, searching wildly for the gaze that rested on him and Ana. But with the rushing people, the bright lights from the nearby casinos, taxis, police vehicles and glow sticks about, it was difficult to see anything in particular. He supposed he could send out a "missing persons" report, but the fact of the matter was he didn't know what she looked like, or what her name was. It wouldn't do any good.

Ana's eyes narrowed as she looked around. She felt the gaze on them, as well, and it unnerved her. Normally, she didn't have much problem picking out her own kind amongst the humans, but this child must have hidden herself somewhere, because she wasn't within sight.

"You can come out, darling," she called carefully. She may not have had the chance to raise her own daughter before that life was taken from her, but Ana had had lifetimes to watch other women raising their daughters. "Where are you? I just want to talk to you, sweetheart. And maybe we can go get something to eat, you and I. Just us girls." Hell, it was worth a shot, to get the child to come out. There was a chilling, girlish giggle that seemed to echo from the alley behind them. Ana spun around to see a little girl who couldn't possibly be older than seven or eight standing there in a frilly Sunday dress. The dress, however, was torn, and the girl was barefoot and smudged with drying blood. Even without those blatant clues, Ana knew this was the newborn. The girl reeked of new blood.

"Will you share him with me?" the little girl asked, tilting her head towards Kris. "He smells like you." The girl wrinkled her nose. "Although Papa says you're not good at sharing, Annie. But I want some." She gave a bright, albeit predatory smile. "Papa says hello, by the way."

Without warning, the girl leapt at Kris like a cat, clearly intent on sinking her fangs into him.

Kris stared at the girl, wondering if it was luck or a curse that they stumbled upon the very thing they were searching for. Or was it that the girl found them? It was most likely the latter, but the hunter liked to remain optimistic. However the child's words were cause for worry.

And then the girl launched herself at Kris, and the hunter felt the hands curl into his clothing, nails ripping through his shirt to claw at his collarbone and shoulders, the force of the pounce knocking him to the ground with the girl pinning him there. He had his hands pressing against her sternum, hoping to keep her away, preventing her from sinking her fangs into him. He wanted one of his blades, as that would certainly do the job, but he couldn't remove one of his hands without her possibly rolling off and getting a better shot at biting him.

"Ana," he groaned, eyes darting around as he watched the crowd slowly beginning to grow and gather. Everyone wanted to know why the little girl was trying to attack him, and why he couldn't push her off. "Help me..."

Ana hadn't been expecting the little newborn to jump at Kris, and didn't react quite quickly enough. She moved to intercept the girl, but the vampire had already grabbed onto Kris and doing her damnedest to sink her teeth into him. Ana darted in and wrapped one arm around the girl's waist, the other around her throat. She would ignore the crowd for the moment... She couldn't take care of them all by herself, anyways. She would need to make a call to the family for a clean-up crew.

"Let go," she hissed at the girl.

"No!" the newborn wailed. "He smells good, and you're not sharing, and I'm so hungry!" She scrambled to get a better hold on the human man. Her fingernails dug into his flesh.

"The humans are staring!" Ana retorted in the girl's ear. "Is that what you want? For the humans to take you away from the family?"

"You left the family," the girl cried. She tried to brace herself against the concrete and get closer to Kris. He was bleeding from somewhere, although neither vampire could tell quite where, and the scent was permeating the area.

"I'm almost four hundred, I'm allowed," Ana snapped, tightening her hold. She was grateful that she'd fed earlier; the scent of fresh blood wasn't as tempting as it could be. The girl lurched again, this time getting close enough to try to take a bite out of Kris's neck. She missed... barely. She took a bite out of his shoulder instead.