Giorgio's blood boiled. The message was simple: "Another coven moving in on our territory. Help."

Internecine warfare was a way among the Eternal, when they weren't smashing mortals, as there were many Eternal and they were predators who operated in territories. They fought for influence, thralls and areas of control. Giorgio was never an ambitious one, Richard was focused on his game and Anna found her thrills in other ways besides brute force domination. Her work required a deft hand, manipulating the prey into acceptance of thralldom and other relationships, making the prey easier, more docile. In this age of reason, it was harder to believe in vampires. The Eternal encouraged this by manipulating information through skilled thralls. That was always the way of it, thrall work was the mundane. They didn't bother with it terribly much, unless amused by it as Anna was.

The home they kept was near enough the school that it wasn't that far away, picked for the preferences of Richard. His game was another amusement. 

They moved fast, soaring down the streets. All thoughts of concealment were out the window. Anna had quickly given Deputy Trenton the signal to drop everything, but the thrall senior deputy wasn't going to be there as quickly as they could and it was imperative that they defend their territory. Other Eternal were the threat, as they could breed quite quickly and were the primary existential challenge to one another. Giorgio, of course, savored the challenge. He'd been created in late-medieval Italy, when cities fought among themselves and never got out of the mode. 

There was quite a bit of state forest, the start of it anyway, to move past toward the school. Richard was, supposedly, a bit past that, as the phone gave a location for them to pinpoint, but Giorgio couldn't quite shake the instinct that something was amiss, particularly as they came in for where Richard was. He was alive, but bound up, and that was the first sign that things were not as they should be. A fight between Eternal did not involve immobilized enemies.

Then, a sledgehammer hit his gut. His knees went weak and he staggered. In trying to draw strength from his reserve, he found that he was unable to do so because it was no longer there. Looking down, he saw his strength, precious blood, spilled to the ground, and felt a fury rise up in him, alongside the immense thirst. This was a hunter trick.

He gave a snarl toward the mortal with the toy gun. Sometimes they would get cagey and try to improvise traps, and he'd dealt with them over the years, pityingly. Still, it seemed off. Perhaps, with his superior vision, he caught the glint of metal on the man, which perhaps meant armor, but he still tried to close the distance with his bare hands.

Several more rounds hit him, aimed from concealment. So they were good shots, but that wouldn't save them. In a sense, Giorgio had the medieval respect for a cunning and brave foe. But the human was just standing there, not trying to find a way to stop the approach. This would end once he was in striking distance.

Somehow, the human was timing the kick properly to actually land a hit. His punch, which should have broken bones, bounced off something hard and unyielding, not the soft flesh of a mortal. Even with armor, the sort he'd seen in his time as an Italian mercenary, mortals were frail.

His leg broke. It wasn't supposed to break, not under a mortal's blow. 

It would heal quickly, but then there was another hammer blow, a shotgun at close range. He looked over and was shocked to see Anna's state, as the hunters came out of their concealment. They were all armed. This time, he carefully assessed his enemies as if they were real foes, dangerous foes, and realized that these mortals were different. They smelled differently, of cold metal. Their heartbeats and breathing were subtly different. The movement, however, really gave it away, there was a precision there beyond even the Eternal. Their eyes reflected back light like a cat's. 

Had they found a way to balance the scales? That was Giorgio's last thought as his head came off with one brutal chop of a blade...

[@vanq]