Óla! First story, no beta, still figuring things out. This story is totally inspired by Mazza666's lovely story The Dark Side of Light (which is incidentally inspired by the Night Huntress books) and you should check both out.

"Faster faster faster faster," I chanted under my breath as the unknown vampire closed in. I was leading four part-fae to the closest fairy portal. I had done it a half-dozen times before without any issues. Not so much as a stubbed toe.

We had always made the journey during the day, always finishing hours before sundown and when vampires would be out and could put a major damper on our plans.

This time, however, everything that could go wrong, did. Which is how I find myself with four fae-human hybrids trying to run away from a rapidly approaching vampire.

The night the vampires took over the government, my grandfather called me with an offer. Niall had told me to be stay clear of the vampires when he first revealed to me years ago that I was part-fae and his great-granddaughter, when the vampires had their big reveal.

He warned me to be wary. We couldn't know for sure unless one of them drank from me, but he assumed I would be a treat to them. Niall explained that he had more to worry about being fully fairy, since his blood was the sweetest drug-like substance to them. He lived in the fairy realm and initially wasn't going to reveal himself or our blood ties to me at all. Niall is a prince but apparently there had been infighting among the different clans and his family was targeted. He thought the Stackhouses would be safer in little Bon Temps living in ignorance of our magical, royal heritage.

But as he watched the vampires after the great revelation become more powerful and start a database of humans, he decided he had to act. The database was touted as a national registry that would bring us into "the future of record-keeping" by using biometric data, including blood. Niall had information that suggesting it also had the added bonus of tracking down the tastiest blood, leading the vampires to all the fae and part-fae.

Which is where the offer comes in. Niall let me know if I or Jason were to submit ourselves to the database, our lives as we know it would be over. They would take and lock us up and draw blood and force us to mate with others like us to keep up the tasty blood supply. He also pointed out when they found out about my telepathy, a quirk I've had since I can remember, they might turn me so they could enslave me indefinitely. He offered us sanctuary in the fairy realm.

Since Gran had passed recently, and Niall made a very convincing argument (the nightmares I had after our talk still make me shudder), we left. It was hard to leave Bon Temps, but the fae and our extended family were welcoming. And the realm was beautiful, I lived like a princess (which I guess, I was) and most importantly, the fae had natural mental shields that made my telepathy almost useless there. For the first time ever, I felt like I belonged.

When Niall asked me to occasionally help pull out other part-fae humans from Louisiana, I felt it was the least I could do. As a local who had gone through a similar experience, I could relate to them better than the rest of the fae, who could be pretty oblivious to human feelings. My little handicap was an added bonus to monitor how the potentials were taking the life changing offer and keep a lookout for danger. Plus, the portal to fae was in my backyard so I knew the area. It was how my Gran came to have an affair with Niall's grandson Fintan and mixed the faery into our blood line in the first place.

Which brings us back to this post-sunset evening, where I had spent too long convincing these part-fae to come with me and had the car break down.

This wouldn't be such a problem if I could teleport, removing the need for the car. I SHOULD be able to teleport them, one by one, right to portal. But after all the hours and hours of practice with my fully faery cousin, Claudine, I couldn't do it. She said since I was only getting exposed to the magic in the fae realm so late in life, it might take years to do what fae teenagers could do with barely any effort.

My four wards started to fall behind, less in shape than I had become with all the training with Claudine. I kept going. If I could just get to the portal, I could bring back help.

I "saw" the vampire, which felt like a blank space to my mind, catch up with the furthest behind, James. His mind went silent in what I assumed was glamour. The vampires' glamour was how they were able to take over the country in the first place, getting people of power under their influence. I was incredibly anxious of getting put through it and spilling my secrets, and pushed myself harder.

The other three minds went out just like James' but bought me a little time. I was no further than a football field distance away from the portal. But the void was almost done with the last of my charges and would be on his way to me in a moment. At his speed, I wouldn't make it.

I needed to buy myself some more time to get out of this mess. If I was to be captured, I couldn't be found out for what I was.

I took a hard left and ran to the edge of a small, swampy lake I knew from my years of living in Bon Temps. There were definitely gators in the lake, but I would sooner take my chances with the reptiles than the blood suckers. I splashed in as quietly as I could, and dropped to my belly as soon as the water was knee high.

I doubted I would escape the void's notice completely, but at least I could disguise my scent. Claudine said it was getting more prominent as I worked with her on my fae abilities. As I dropped into the water on the edge of the lake, I started rolling around, and covering my skin with the muck.

There was swamp grass along the edges, so I moved behind a patch. I needed the void to think I was hiding from him, nothing else. I patted my hair down, covering my long blonde hair with the dark mud. I held my breath as I waited for something to happen.

And then the void was there.

"Well hello darling, what are you doing in there?" the vampire asked me. He had dark hair and pale skin and some really out of style sideburns going on.

I looked at him in what I hoped was a frightened way, and considering how scared I was, I was probably pretty close. I made eye contact and braced myself for the glamour.

I felt something in my head. Not unpleasant, it almost reminded me of the singing bowl Claudine rang at the end of our lessons, a vibration in my skull that was hard to pinpoint. I concentrated on keeping it out and it dissipated. But instead of letting my relief come through, I kept my eyes locked on him and let me mouth go slack. This would look like I was under his thrall, hopefully. If they could tell it hadn't taken hold, I was screwed.

But the slacked jaw look seemed to work for the dark-haired vampire and he smiled paternalistically at me.

"That right darling, look at me and let's get you out of that muck," he said in what I recognized as a Louisiana drawl.

Could he be a local vampire? I guess I had assumed they were all exotic, coming from Europe or I don't know, Transylvania. Before I could think about it more than that, I climbed up to my feet, feeling pleased to see pretty much every inch of my skin and much of my clothes covered in swamp.

"You look awfully beautiful under all that," the vampire said. "We will just have to get you cleaned up to check for sure. Follow me."

So, lord help me, I followed him.