I felt his soft black hair touching my cheek, his lips above my clavicle. A stream of air flowed onto the base of my neck as he exhaled.

But instead of sinking his teeth into my soft flesh, he stunned our attackers, thrusting the back of his skull into the nose of a vampire behind. Taken by surprise, the vampires' grips loosened, and Nate ripped himself from their grasp.

Not receiving any blows, Nate dealt them himself, knocking the vampires off their feet with single punches. The vampire behind me released his hold, tossing me aside to join in the skirmish. By then, the battle was nearly over. A couple of the vampires, having been beaten bloody, scampered away in retreat, escaping with the vehicles. The others followed suit, and it wasn't long until the last vampire gave up, spitting blood onto the asphalt as he hastened away.

Nate straightened up, "We should probably take a different route back to the pharmacy, just to be safe."

"Alright," I agreed, although I really wished to be able to sprint to the safety of the pharmacy as quickly as possible. We headed the opposite direction. Attempting to start conversation, I admitted with a half-hearted chuckle, "I thought you were going to bite me back there."

"I was," replied Nate, with a straight face.

"Oh..." the weight grew heavier on my chest.

"There wasn't anything you could've done, I know, but you can't let me get that close. I'm still a vampire. I don't think I'm strong enough to resist that again. I don't want to hurt you, Elizabeth..."

Nate trailed off, and the next couple minutes were spent in silence as I considered trotting a step or two farther behind him.

Nate stopped walking. He froze and moved only to twist the corners of his mouth into a snarl.

"Nate... now what's wrong?" I had accidently bumped into him, and not seeing anything, I was quite alarmed.

Then I saw it. Twenty yards or so away, a man was sprinting towards the two of us head on. Nate pushed me against the building and braced himself in front of me. Vampiric teeth descended, eyes bright red, he stood his ground. The aggressor pummeled into Nate.

The two rolled across the pavement, each trying to pin the other down and gain the upper hand. Nate struggled against his attacker for a brief moment but slid out from under him and stuck a roundhouse kick to the man's left temple. The man hardly flinched. Even with the little illuminessence the streetlight emitted, I could see his eyes glow yellow as his ears grew pointed and all of his teeth were replaced by those of unproportionate sizes. He let loose a deep guttural roar. As he swiped at Nate with what appeared to be as sharp and menacing as bear claws, Nate evaded each attack with agility. Despite my limited experience with vampires, I knew something was different about this one.

In a flash, Nate branded his knife and placed it in the side of the larger man. He grunted in pain but Nate's attack slowed his dodge just enough to have his own face be torn open by four claws. Although both were injured, the fight persisted intensely. Tooth and claw and blade broke open each opponent's skin. Interesting enough, neither seemed to be healing readily as I had seen Nate do before. I couldn't do much to help Nate, but his strength was in his speed. The other vampire was fast, but being much larger, he was lumbering around in comparison.

A car drove steadily down the road. I remembered what Nate said about the police. If a suspicious fight were to be reported, it would spell out great danger for both of us. Nate had the same thought and disappeared in the shadow of a building entrance.

The other man jumped at the opportunity to corner Nate in as soon as the vehicle's headlights passed. I ran across the street to where Nate was suspended against the side of doorway, his neck in the vice of the animalistic vampire. Nate was struggling, but had no leverage against the larger opponent. He dangled, weak and bleeding, gasping through his vampiric fangs. But I could tell the other man was losing strength as well. I searched my mind for a way to save Nate.

Panicking, I sprinted at the assaulter. Wielding my fingernails and fists, I pulled at the vampire's arm and beat his back. All the while I yelled for the release of my friend.

"RUN! Can't you see I'm saving your life?!" the man turned his head towards me, appearing about as confused as I was, "He's a vampire." He smashed Nate's head into the wall with a loud crack.

"I told you to put him down!" I continued my pounding, figuring that I was at least being an annoyance.

"You're.. you're human. Why are you defending this bloodsucker? It's going to kill you. What don't you understand about that?" angrily the man roared.

He turned back to Nate who managed to snarl out, "Elizabeth, go! I got this under control."

Nate tried to give me an unconvincing smile as the man tightened his grip, "Will you have it under control when I rip your head off your undead body?"

Just a few yards from where the struggle was taking place, Nate's knife shimmered in the corner of my eye.

In a final attempt to save Nate, I sprinted there and back, preparing to strike with as much force as I could at the base of the man's neck.