Cautious of each step she took, Jade crept towards the last place shed seen her partner. Her breathing was disturbingly loud in the dead stillness, as was her racing heart.

Chase! she called out again, her voice swallowed up by the night. He was nowhere to be seen. No sign of his passage imprinted on the ground. No used shells from a silent struggle.

Jade reached for her cellular to call for backup. This was way over her head. She needed a large team. Fast.

The ground suddenly opened up around her. She gasped and seized a tombstone in mid-fall. If her hand hadnt been free, the earth wouldve swallowed her up before she could have reacted. Instead, just as quickly as it had opened, the ground closed, leaving her halfway frozen in the soil that tightened around her legs.

Jade fumbled with her phone in one hand, not daring to let go of the granite chunk that had saved her life. Her speed-dial finally got the SDE Department.

Supernatural and

This is Jade Saddler, Jade said, interrupting the agent who had answered. Ive got an emergency at the Rivendale Cemetery! The grounds opened up and practically swallowed me. Ive got a missing partner and an uncertain number of missing civilians that have probably gone down the same way.

Well get a team there immediately, the young woman said. Can you hold out until we get there?

As if it would matter, Jade grumbled to herself. The earth tightened painfully.

I sure as hell better be able to or therell be no one to greet you, she said between her teeth. Just hur Jade gasped as the ground opened up and tried to swallow her again. She dropped the phone and tried to take hold of the cross-shaped tomb marker with both hands. Her fingers slipped before she could make it and she let out a strangled cry as she dropped.

Just as swiftly as it had started, Jade was dangling over the closed ground. Christian held her by her wrist. He stood perfectly balanced on the top of the gravestone, unhindered by her weight.

Jades eyes fell on his blood-covered clothing. The vampires wounds were all healed as far as she could tell. How could he have recovered so quickly?

She swallowed deeply. What was he doing in the cemetery? She only briefly glanced at his eyes, but they were midnight pools. Standing still as death, he looked more like a vampire than shed ever seen before.

Why did you enter here? he asked, his voice stone cold.

We were investigatingoh God, Chase is still under there somewhere!

With Jade still in hand, the vampire jumped up onto the mausoleum. He dropped her on the hard stone rooftop and disappeared again. Jade scrambled up just in time to see Christian break off a chunk of granite from a tombstone. He dropped it on the ground not too far from where Jade had been swallowed.

In the blink of an eye, Christian had Chase by the shoulder and jumped up onto the mausoleum again. He dropped him just as carelessly as hed dropped her.

Ch-Chase? Jade asked and knelt beside him. She checked his heartbeat. It was weak, but steady. He was breathing. Jade let out a sigh of relief. God, he could have suffocated. She stood and peered over the edge of the roof.

I dont get it, she mumbled. What happened to the ground? She looked up at the vampire standing near her fallen partner. He just stared down at Chase with coal stone eyes, a predatory gleam in his deadly gaze.

Christian? she asked cautiously.

He wasnt the one who staked me, the vampire said evenly, otherwise Id tear out his throat without hesitation. He looked over to her. What were you thinking, entering a cemetery with such evil surrounding it?

What evil? Its sick, but... She trailed off. He just shook his head slowly.

You understand so little.

Then explain it to me.

He brought his midnight black eyes over to her. There was Hunger in them, as well as pain and a plain view of his vampire instincts coming to the surface.

Explain now, while I want to kill you? he asked. Dont think so highly of me, Jade. Im depleted of blood and you have plenty of it. He spoke coldly. She could see his inner struggle as he tried not to attack.

Are the instincts really that strong?

More than you could imagine. He watched her intently. Jade felt like a mouse being studied by a hungry cat. Why did you save me, executioner? The words slithered across her skin as she felt some of his vampire power.

Why did she save him? She looked at her feet. I...I dont know of anyone else who can fight the Demon Lord.

I see.

Jade looked up in time to see him turn away from her and walk to the edge of the rooftop.

Christian, wait! She watched his back stiffen. He really did want to kill her... At least tell me how to fix the graveyard.

You cant.

Why the hell not?

The vampire tilted his head towards her. Some things mortals cant kill, he said. Others can only be destroyed in ways lost centuries ago.

But you can.

He remained silent.

Why are you being this way?

He turned to her with a deadly glint in his eyes. I am not the protector of your race, human, he growled. You hunt and kill my kind and then expect me to care about some mortals swallowed by dark earth spirits? I should kill you just for what you are.