She heard the sliding glass door leading out to the balcony open and could feel someone ease into the space next to her — close, but not close enough to make physical contact. Adrian was cast in the glow of the city lights when she turned to look at him, and his eyes flickered over the passing crowds on the street below them with stoic concentration. 

“So have you always been this beautiful or has immortality just happened to be really kind to you?” She asked lightheartedly, nudging her shoulder playfully against his to punctuate the question. 

The familiar intensity of his gaze broke, and he couldn’t help but chuckle along with her. “I’m not sure I have an answer for that.” He took a glance down at his watch before moving an arm around her shoulders and gently pulling her closer to his side. “We still have about an hour until we’re meeting with Cal. Did you want to do some sightseeing until then?”

Brynn shrugged. She knew that she normally would have said ‘yes’ without hesitation, but perhaps the stress of the last few days’ events were taking more of a toll on her than she’d realized. “If you want to,” she finally responded. 

A comfortable quiet settled between them as they continued to watch the cheerful scene below them. People smiling...dancing with one another...seemingly without a care in the world that extended past where they were going to get their next drink.

“I promise the next trip we take will be under better circumstances,” He said. Brynn leaned her head against his shoulder with a barely audible sigh, a gentle, southern breeze ruffling the hair that fell neatly over her shoulders. “I know you’re worried, but if we survived Gaius we can survive anything.”

Maybe he was right, she thought. Thinking back, it was a miracle in and of itself that they’d all survived those few months of what could only be aptly described as a living nightmare. Being attacked by Gaius upon his initial return...the slaughter at Serafine’s club...the shock of watching Elias burn to death at the hands of the Order...

Through it all, however, they had survived. Barely...but they did. And the newest situation at hand — while still in need of a timely solution — was minor in comparison.

“I just hope it doesn’t get worse before it gets better,” she finally responded. 

“It won’t. I won’t let it.” The certainty with which he spoke was almost enough to convince her that he knew this for a fact. “These attacks are happening at random. Whoever’s behind them is more than likely an amateur...someone who knows a great deal about the supernatural and has decided to take up vampire hunting for sport.”

“An amateur who knows enough to put some sort of ward on my memories?” 

“Like I said, most people who take up vampire hunting are well versed in our history. They may just be taking extra precaution...but every amateur makes a mistake somewhere along the way.”

“Yeah. I guess.”

A slightly tense silence settled over them, but when she could feel his hand touch her elbow and turned to look at him, she could see the sincerity behind his eyes. She could tell that wasn’t just telling her what she wanted to hear in that given moment. 

“We’ll figure it out, Brynn,” he promised.

With a slow nod, she finally conceded. After all, he had much more experience with this sort of thing than she did. Apparently this wasn’t the first rogue vampire slayer wreaking havoc among the immortal community, and she doubted it would be the last. 

“I just...” she started, but allowed her words to trail off. 

Adrian’s soft smile faltered when her eyebrows knitted together in what was clearly some sort of distress. “What?”

“I just thought things would be okay for a while,” she finished. With a low sigh, she turned herself around to face him. “I guess I just hoped...” She shook her head, shifting her eyes up to meet his as she let her lips curve into a small smile, despite the sadness still present behind her eyes. “These last two years...not being on the run or watching our backs everywhere we go...being able to just be...I guess I just got used to it.”

“I’ve always stood behind the idea that monotony is underrated.” 

Brynn rolled her eyes, but couldn’t contain the smile that came along with it. “I wouldn’t exactly call anything about your world monotonous,” she said.

Adrian’s smile was playful. Genuine. The type to put her mind at ease even with the circumstances at hand. “Clearly you haven’t sat through enough Council meetings,” he teased in response. 

Despite the circumstances, Brynn couldn’t help but consider how nice it was to see him in relatively good spirits during a time of discontent. Everything that had happened following Gaius’s return had weighed so heavily on his heart. She had seen the light gradually fade from behind his eyes each time they were faced with a new obstacle or tragedy. Serafine’s abduction. Elias’s death. She hated what it all had done to him. 

Seeing that glimmer of passion slowly begin to return with each passing day since, however, had been some of the highlights of the past two years. It was as if Gaius being gone for good had finally released the chains that had always shackled him to the idea that he was nothing more than a monster. For the first time in a long time, he seemed to believe her when she would remind him of how much good he had done for others. The past was finally behind him...nothing more than a fading landscape in the rearview mirror.

Her arms found their way around his neck, and he pulled her closer with a soft, thoughtful gaze. “I’m so happy I met you, Adrian Raines,” she reminded him, her fingers toying absentmindedly with the collar of his shirt. He looked as if he wanted to respond, a fond smile falling upon his lips, but she beat him to it when she pulled away from their embrace and took his hand in hers. “Come on. I think I actually do want to check out the city after all.”

Later that night, after following the directions that Cal had sent, Brynn and Adrian found themselves standing outside of an unassuming looking bar. Despite the fact that the outside didn’t draw much attention, the rowdy voices and raucous laughter of the crowd from within could be heard even through the brick separating them. 

Adrian glanced down at his phone to double check the given address, then back up to the wooden sign that hung just outside the door, where the words Graveyard Shift were printed against the worn mahogany in thick, black letters. “Huh.”

It was a short, almost inaudible sound, but it caught the attention of the woman by his side nevertheless. 

“What?” She inquired. 

“This place has certainly changed.” He studied the weathered sign with a glimmer of fondness behind his eyes. “This bar holds quite a few fond memories for me.” 

With a teasing smile, she ghosted the tips of her fingers against the sleeve of his jacket. “Memories of Serafine?” She asked, the familiar name of their mutual friend rolling off her tongue in a singsong tone. 

Adrian chuckled, but she couldn’t help but notice how he scratched awkwardly at the collar of his shirt. “That’s...beside the point.”

When she pushed the heavy doors open with nothing more than a knowing smirk, the music and the voices of the crowd were a rush to the head, and her eyes quickly adjusted to the dim lighting of the interior as she took it all in. She could feel Adrian’s hand gently grasp hers before he leaned closer to speak to her over the noise. 

“I think I saw Cal over by the bar,” he said.  

Dozens of mingling people — each somehow seemingly more beautiful than the last — crowded the path to the bar as they made their way through the crowd. The path of open space narrowed, pushing them shoulder to shoulder with the strangers surrounding them. So close that Brynn could smell the floral perfume of the woman she had shimmied past who was holding onto the arm of a hulking young man with long, unruly hair. The man whose gaze lingered warily on Adrian as they passed. 

“Not many of you around here,” the man commented, holding the same appraising stare. 

“I’m sorry?” Adrian inquired. 

“You. Your kind,” he clarified. The words should have sounded harsh, but his tone was level...casual even. “I could smell you before you even came in the door. Must not be from around here, huh?” 

Adrian studied him carefully, his eyebrows knitted slightly in focus, but before he could conjure up a response, someone was calling across the bar to the stranger, drawing his attention away from the scenario at hand. He wished the couple well, wasting no time before grasping the hand of the woman who was with him and dragging her across the bar to the small group that waited for him. 

“Okay...what was that about?” Brynn said. 

“Not sure, honestly,” Adrian admitted. “But I’d advise you to stay on guard.” 

“Meaning?”

“Meaning...I’m not sure just how much this place has changed...but if I had to guess, I’d say most of these people aren’t human.” 

Brynn’s eyes scanned the crowd as his words processed. They certainly looked human...but then again, so did Adrian. He had mentioned to her on more than one occasion that vampirism was not even the tip of the iceberg when it came to the oddities of the supernatural world. 

The crowd began to thin just slightly as they approached the sturdy, wooden bar near the back of the establishment. A beautiful woman in a skintight black dress sat nursing the last few sips of a mixed drink as she shared a laugh with the bartender. And directly next to her sat a familiar face. 

As if he could sense their presence without needing to hear or see them at all, Cal turned around to face them almost as soon as they had come within a reasonable distance. The corners of his lips turned up into a fond smile, and he stood to greet the expected duo. 

“I was starting to think y'all got lost,” he greeted them with a smile. He and Adrian shook hands, but when he turned to offer the same gesture to Brynn he found himself being pulled into a tight hug instead. “Oof!” He chuckled. “Good to see you too. Kinda wish we’d stop meeting under life or death circumstances though.” 

“I guess Adrian explained everything on the phone?” She inquired. 

Cal nodded, and the three of them took the three empty barstools next to the woman in black. “I figured the worst of things was over after the whole mess that broke out right after Vegas. Word about that traveled a lot faster than this.” 

“It’s a relatively new development, and the senior members of the Council have been extra cautious in keeping it under wraps,” Adrian explained. “We’re hoping it can be resolved before it becomes a crisis.”

“Well maybe things are different up north of the Mason Dixon, but a serial vampire hunter who can wipe people’s memories sounds a hell of a lot like a crisis to me.” At the sound of Cal’s statement, Brynn’s eyebrows creased in worry. Cal, however, offered up a small, yet reassuring smile in her direction. “Listen, if it really is a ward you’re dealing with, my friends who live in the apartment upstairs might be able to help you. I haven’t met a spell they can’t break.” 

“So your friends...” Brynn paused as she searched for her words, “they’re...witches?”

Cal threw his head back with a hearty laugh. “Not quite,” he said. “They’re Nighthunters. I’m sure Adrian knows the field.”

It wasn’t until her attention was brought back to Adrian that Brynn noticed him bristle just slightly before confirming. “I’m familiar.”  

Brynn had, admittedly, felt as if her head was starting to spin. Cal had mentioned New Orleans being home to more oddities than she could wrap her head around when they had first met, but things seemed to be getting more foreign by the second. And the connotation that came along with referring to these people as hunters, combined with Adrian’s seemingly negative reaction to the idea, she couldn’t help the feeling of uneasiness that settled over her. 

“And by Nighthunters you mean...?”

“They're no threat,” Adrian assured her without her needing to directly voice the concern that was imminent in her tone. “Most are headstrong and needlessly arrogant...but safe nevertheless.”

The dashing blonde man who stood behind the bar slid two drinks up to the out-of-towners with a radiant smile. 

“Headstrong and arrogant? Sounds like our Nik alright,” he teased before nodding towards the full glasses. “These are on the house. You two looked like you could use something to take the edge off, and any friend of Cal’s is a friend of mine.” 

“Thank you. That’s very generous,” Adrian said. He studied the way that the colors in the drink seemed to swirl almost hypnotically for just a moment, but before he could take a sip he was interrupted by the familiar tone of his cell phone. “It’s Kamilah. If you’ll all excuse me, I need to take this.”

Cal and Brynn sat in a comfortable silence for a moment before she eventually picked up her drink to taste the neon liquids that swirled together in front of her.  A rush of what could have only been described as a cross between adrenaline and euphoria ignited in the pit of her stomach as she drank, and the same bartender who had provided the mysterious concoction for them watched with an amused smile. 

A giggle slipped past her lips involuntarily, and when her eyes reconnected with the bartender’s he only offered a chuckle and a friendly wink. “Fae specialty,” he said without her needing to ask. “Guaranteed to turn any frown upside-down.”

Brynn’s lips parted to respond, but Cal beat her to it. “Speaking of Fae specialties,” he started, slipping off of the barstool he had been seated on before holding his hand out to his guest, “since we’re here...we should go see if Arya’s home. The sooner your problem’s solved the better.” 

“Good idea,” she agreed. “Let me go tell Adrian where to find us.” 

“I’ll go. Just wait for me by the stairs.” Brynn glanced over her shoulder when Cal nodded towards a small alcove in the back of the bar before disappearing into the crowd to make his way towards the front door.

Doing as she was instructed, she shimmied her way through the small clusters of bar patrons over to the back exit that seemed to lead up into the aforementioned apartment. Living above a bar certainly didn’t seem ideal...especially a bar that seemed as active as this one. Out of curiosity, she dipped into the alcove and climbed about a quarter of the way up the stairs to see if the living situation was quieter than it seemed at first glance. 

Surprisingly enough, the sounds of the bar had practically faded into nothingness, and the darkness of the corridor invited her into an almost comforting silence. But something felt...amiss. 

She peered up the stairs with a squint, noticing that the door at the top was slightly ajar once her eyes adjusted to the darkness. And when the ringing in her ears settled from the sheer volume of the bar just a few feet away, she could hear a thud followed by what sounded like the crash of something being knocked to the floor. 

Instinct urged her to call up the short distance and make sure that everything was okay, but if there was anything she had learned within the past few years, it was that she always wanted to be thinking two steps ahead. So instead of calling out and drawing any unwanted attention to herself, she quietly began to creep up the stairs instead. 

The floor creaked just slightly under the weight of her shoes as she inched closer to the sound of what seemed to be some sort of struggle, and she moved more slowly with each step as she tried to listen in. Another thud sounded against the wall before she could hear a muffled shout.

“Let go of me!”

She peeked into the apartment to find it empty and deduced that the struggle must have been coming from another room. Using the edge of her shoe, she silently nudged the ajar door open just enough so that she could slip into the confines of the apartment.

“Let go of you? You think it’s gonna be that easy?” 

At the sound of the following words, Brynn scooped up the first thing she could find: a heavy vase resting on the end table next to the couch. And with stealth that even she didn’t know she possessed, she finally found herself standing in the doorway to the room that held the source of all the noise, watching a man with a crossbow slung over one shoulder subdue a woman in a red jacket as she struggled to free herself from his vice-like grip. 

Without a second thought, Brynn pulled her arm back and launched the vase towards the perpetrator, where it hit with a heavy thud against his shoulder blade and successfully resulted in him breaking his stronghold on the woman in his grasp. 

“Ow! Shit!” He hissed. His crossbow fell to the floor with a clang when his hand moved to grab his injured shoulder in agony. “What the hell?!” 

The woman turned around and quickly gathered the fallen crossbow into her own hands. Brynn expected her to deliver a finishing blow that would be sure to at least keep him down until she could get away with the help of the distraction. 

What she didn’t expect was for the woman to turn the crossbow on her. 

Heart thudding in her chest, Brynn held up her hands in a surrender. “Hell of a way to say thank you.” She scoffed through gritted teeth. 

“Thank you?” The woman asked. “For what? Trying to brain my boyfriend with a vase?” 

“Your boyfriend? He was attacking you!”

“We were sparring!”

“Hold on, Arya, I think this might be-” The man interjected, as if to quell the situation at hand, but was cut off by the click of her steadying the crossbow. 

“No. No more small talk,” Arya - the crossbow wielder - stated with steely confidence. “Now you’ve got twenty seconds to explain what the hell you’re doing in our apartment.”