I gripped my stake, still in my non-dominant hand, my other one still bleeding, and got the kill shot my first try.

"Why have a discussion now? Why not last night?" I asked, wiping the bottoms of my boots on a dry patch of grass.

He pointed right, to another incoming vampire, whom I quickly dispatched.

"Your pointing isn't answering any of my questions," I shot at him.

His head-to-toe black leather creaked as he studied me from inside his deep hood. "I'm ...