Blood Oath

     Zach tried not to laugh. "A presidential vampire, huh? You really expect me to believe we've got a vampire on a leash, and we can just send him after terrorists and spies whenever we want?"

     For the first time all night, Griff laughed. He seemed genuinely amused, and that pissed Zach off even more. 

     There are worse things in this world than al-Queda and North Korea. Zach. And they are just waiting for their chance at us. Humanity will not survive that. Someone has to be there to hold the line. And that's what we do."

     The room seemed very quiet now. Zach asked the only question that made sense. 

     "What if I don't want the job?"

     Griff's expression didn't change. "You really think you can just walk away?"

     "Is that - are you threatening me? Listen up, old man, because there's no way -"

     "Ir's not his job to be threatening, actually."

     For a split second, Zach didn't know where the words had come from. Then he turned around and faced someone standing directly behind him. As if from nowhere.

     "It's mine," he said, and smiled.

     He was taller than Zach, wearing ragged black fatigues. He looked young. And pale. Very, very pale. Looking at him, Zach felt a stirring of instinct honed when humans huddled at the edges of campfires. He suddenly knew he was in the presence of something that stalked his kind, and had for thousands of years. A predator. 

     There is a reason humans are genetically programmed to fear the dark. Zach was looking at it