I opened my eyes. It was dawn. I was lying under a hay rack. I couldn't climb in, but it still protected me from the rain. I moved my head, the mud squelched. It must have rained for a long time. At the edge of the field of vision, four hooves appeared, framed only by very faint rainbow outlines. Then the hooves and outlines disappeared. After a while, they were replaced by legs in black jeans and leather boots. They were not modern trekking boots, but sturdy military-style leather boots. And those legs - belonged to a woman. I tried to move so I could see more. Great success. It was my friend from the fitness center. In addition to the shoes and the black jeans, she was wearing a black sports jacket, gloves, and a scarf. For a woman, she had a strangely monochrome taste. She held a bag in her hand. My bag.

"You're still alive," she said.

"Yeah. And I want it to stay that way," I growled.

I doubt I sounded friendly.

"But you can't stay here, a local forester comes here twice a week and children from school come every Wednesday to watch animals."

And just when I started to like it here so much.

"Can you get outta there?"

Perhaps you meant from out of there? But I didn't say it out loud.

I tried, but my legs listened to me even less than when I dragged myself here.

"No."

She held out her hand so we could grab each other's wrists, then pulled me out from under the hay rack in a single motion. She had incredible strength, I weigh a little over one hundred and thirty kilograms. On the other hand, the slippery mud made it easier for her.

"We have to get out of here, I'll help you to your feet now."

Although she said help, it looked more like she just picked me up. This time the mud no longer helped her.

I let myself be supported and guided because there was nothing else I could do.

I had no idea how long we had been wandering the woods. I felt like I spent part of the journey in a trance. Thank God for that, otherwise I wouldn't have made it.

 

* * *

 

I was awakened by the heat and crackling of the fire. I opened my eyes. Covered by a sleeping bag I laid on the ground, I heard the rustle of rain, but it didn't rain on me. An overhanging cliff shielded us. Us. My lifesaver was sitting on a folded backpack, staring away and not noticing that I woke up. Or she didn't care.

It was raining more and more, I felt the soil beneath me get wet. I tried to get up, but I still couldn't. It didn't work at all. Am I paralyzed? Certainly not. Nevertheless, I didn't want to lie in a pool of water.

"Could you help me?" I asked.

"How?" She looked at me.

Here, in the shadow of a rainy day, she looked much more real and realistic than under artificial fluorescent lighting.

"I didn't expect you to survive, they did a number on you."

Only now did I realize that I had one leg in the splint and my chest in a white cloth armor, and there was an infusion bag on a spruce branch above me. The clear cable was inserted through a cannula into a vein in my left hand.

"I don't want to lie in the water."

"Sure," she nodded.

I watched her inflate a mattress and make another bed. She had everything ready, only she probably hadn't gotten to it yet. She looked pretty tired. It slowly dawned on me that she had to carry me for a very long time. A woman who could not weigh more than sixty, well, sixty-three kilograms, when I considered her athletic figure, dragged a load more than twice as heavy for many kilometers. I looked up at the sky - the clouds passed just above our heads and I have never seen hills higher than these. And we were pretty high too. She couldn't do that. If she were a human.

"Done. Ready?” She asked, grabbing my upper arm.

With her help, I easily moved to a new bed.

"You're a vampire," I said, to make her understand I knew.

"Yes, just like the one who massacred you so much," she didn't deny.

"Why did you help me?" I asked.

She sat back on her backpack and threw a few branches into the fire. The wet wood hissed in the flames. She looked into the fire, not at me.

"Two months ago, I was ordered to pack my bags and come here. I am not in a position to oppose superiors in the clan hierarchy. They just told me that when the time came, I should make contact with the designated man."

"Make contact?" I didn't understand.

"I should have tried to seduce him. If he wasn't interested, I should have tagged him, and that was it. No one told me his murder would follow. An attempted murder," she corrected herself.

I thought about it for a while, the level of infusion in the container above me had dropped a little during that time, the rain was still rustling, it was getting cold.

As if she felt it too, she threw in a good pile of branches.

"Someone didn’t want to be associated with murder at any cost," I said.

"Yes. That's where I, a stranger, came in. And I was quite annoyed that none of my people or those that I helped bothered to warn me that the one associated with murder could very well be me. And that is a very serious thing in these times of peace," she explained.

"Is that why you helped me?"

"Yes, I guess," she admitted.

"How were you instructed?"

"By phone."

"And how were you supposed to tag me?"

"I did not tag anyone. I just got information that a foreigner arrived in the city and that I have to make contact with him, make an appointment with him, just flirt. Then call the phone number and tell the result, whether or not he is interested. "

They knew a lot about me, which means someone in the pack spoke. That was bad. We are resistant to pain and rarely reveal anything to enemies.

"And I was not interested. Then a bunch of local thugs checked on me to see if and how I would deal with them. Then the killer followed," I continued to think aloud.

"Yes, something like that," she admitted.

"I couldn't believe a guy wasn’t interested in me," she said. "Unless he's a homosexual. And I don't think you are?"

I ignored the question of my sexual orientation.

"Where are you from? You speak Czech perfectly.”

"Poland, Wroclaw. As a child, I lived at the border for a while."

That explained a lot. I kept thinking in silence.

"Cold Fish seems to be pretty accurate."

I winced, I haven't heard this derogatory nickname in years.

"I don't like it when they call me that."

Maybe because it's true in a way.

"I'm sorry," she said, though she didn't have to.

The rain intensified and water splinters from splashing droplets fell on us. But we couldn't hide better, because the overhang provided only a shallow shelter.

"So you decided to leave the clan?" I asked.

Otherwise, I couldn't explain the fact that she helped me.

The heat and the infusion made me feel much better. Maybe there was a sedative in it. It was good.

"Perhaps. I don't know. A person, a vampire," she grinned, "won't feel better when they realize they are just an indispensable item. Maybe I stepped on someone's thumb, or didn't sleep with someone who took it very personal," she shrugged.

I had little knowledge of vampires, but I knew that it is very difficult for them to survive in modern societies just by themselves. Especially for the older ones.

"What about you?" She asked this time." Will you disappear after you get out of this? Your recovery is miraculously fast."

The flames crackled and hissed, and despite the loud protest of my injured body I pushed a few dry branches into the fire.

"No, I will not," I said softly.

She looked at me in surprise and I fell silent. There was such emphasis in my answer that it surprised even me.

"I got a message that the pack needs help. So I came here, home. None of my people are here, they're all gone. And immediately upon my arrival someone tries to kill me. And quite carefully, as if he didn't want to attract attention and at the same time knew what to expect from me," I explained, even though I didn't have to.

"I'll stay here, find out what is going on, and try to help my people. If it is not late. In any case, those who are to blame, I will kill them all."

"That sounds pretty bloodthirsty," she said, still watching me.

"I'm a predator like you," I reminded her.

"Revenge rarely pays off."

"Sometimes it is the only thing left to do."

"You don't know who you're up against, they can have even more capable killers than the one in the park."

She was right, that should slow me down a bit. I have never received such a terrible beating in my life and I would be lying if I said that I tried to avoid troubles.

"I wasn't ready."

"I guess not," she agreed.

"If I am to not arouse any suspicion, I must return soon. I will pretend that I have no idea what happened to you after our farewell at the gym, "she said as she left.

"And will you let me know who contacted you about the questions?" I asked.

"That's why I'm going back there. I will return here as soon as possible. You should stay here for two or three days."

"Goodbye," she said, and with flexible, experienced steps from someone familiar with nature, she headed down the slope.

I watched her long, athletic legs, that was all a practical extended jacket would let me see. She was wearing a cap, having her hair pulled back in a ponytail. I wondered if I would ever see her again, if I would be here the next day. I still liked her as much as I did when I first saw her, but I wasn't so surprised anymore. Fortunately, the fact that every breath hurt like hell made it much easier to focus on other things that were more important for now.

I stayed camped in the same place. I had two good reasons for this. Without enough food, I didn't recover as quickly as I needed in the dry moisture. And she could really help me - if she wanted to.

She reappeared two days later.