Leon looked at his door; it had been three weeks since he had sent her into a forced 'vacation'.
To say he was worried was a severe understatement; it wasn't like her to simply take being laid off for any amount of time no matter how short. His fingers tapped against his new metal desk filling the room with the metallic sound of flesh bumping against metal. His office door opened and for a moment he believed it was her.
"Yo' Leon!"
Darren jumped into one of the chairs in front of the metal desk swinging his feet over the armrest; he reached his hand to his platinum blonde hair combing his fingers through it as he smirked, his sharpened teeth shining in the dim light of the office.
"Where’s your brother Darren?"
"Aww, you're not even happy to see me, now that’s cruel."
He continued smiling at Leon, his ice chip blue eyes shining when he looked away and towards the door as Damien walked into the office.
He looked the exact same as Darren, thin build, pale skin, ice chip blue eyes, and nearly white hair; but he was calmer and more stoic as he walked forward.
"I feel touched."
His lips were pursed in a thin line as he casually sat down in the chair next to his brother.
"I take it our friend has not shown up yet then..."
The room was silent, the three looking at each-other with the answer written clearly on their faces.
"Well...look in her apartment then."
Damien and Leon each looked at Darren with unbridled surprise, neither of them knew she even had a permanent place outside of the academy.
"Darren are quite you sure she has a place?"
"Quite sure actually, I've been there you know."
He toyed with a strand of his shaggy hair innocently looking at the ceiling with a broad smile on his face.
"In the city, it’s small crappy place all in all, but she keeps it, something about how it's hidden pretty well and no one would look there."
Leon pulled a drawer open on his desk and took out piles of papers and forms starting to fill them out with rushed speed,
"I want you two to go there then...I'm filling everything out, so just take your phones and bring her back..."
Darren gave a salute jumping up from the chair as Damien simply nodded exiting with his brother leaving Leon furiously scribbling on forms his cell phone right beside him just in case.
"Why do you visit her Darren?"
His brother looked behind him with a questioning face before simply shrugging.
"It gets lonely sometimes you know..."
He left it at that, his tone short and clipped meaning he didn't want to talk about it any further.
They walked down the hall in silence, surprising the crowd of other hunters that their top two were for once quiet and calm instead of arguing and picking a fight as they usually did.
They walked out of the huge doors to the academy into the hazy sunshine, a sleek black car already waiting for them in front of the steps the engine running in a low purr.
"I call front!"
Darren ran down the steps swinging the door open and sliding into the passenger seat leaving the back seat for his brother. He acquiesced easily enough calmly opening the door and sliding his long body into the car taking care not to hit his head against the ceiling. The driver spoke with Darren asking where they were going and how they were getting there leaving
Damien to think alone in the back of the car watching as the landscape whizzed by against the windows. The car ride was almost completely silent except for a few 'lefts' and 'rights' mumbled from Darren to the obedient driver. They drove through the crowded streets with the rest of the traffic brought nearly to a stalemate at red lights being stopped for ten minutes or more at a time. Damien watched the landscape crawl by, people rushing and moving further than the cars right next to them. He opened the door, the car nearly stopped anyway, and stepped out into the overcast light of the day his brother waving to the driver and jumping out of the car.
“Well, I was just thinking it would take forever to reach her by car.”
Damien nodded shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans as Darren took the lead and waltzed ahead of him his hands behind his head as he smiled and waved at people passing by who seemed to recognize him.
“Here we are brother, her home away from home.”
“When you said crappy I didn’t realize it was this bad…she could have stayed with us…”
They both looked up at the dilapidated building, Damien grimacing as he saw some of the bricks actually fall away from the wall and to the ground.
“Hey look Damien…A cat! I’ve never seen a cat here before.”
He pointed up at the fire escape where a chocolate colored cat sat perched on the railing eyeing a bird before pouncing at the flapping body. With its catch securely in its mouth it ran through a broken window.
“If I’m right…it went in her room.”
He looked to his brother confused before shrugging,
“Maybe she got lonely without me…”
With that he walked up the steps ahead of his brother who remained quiet and aloof to the whole situation, his face passive as he quietly thought to himself. They both made their way up the steps opening the door with a loud creaking from the lack of oil applied to the ancient hinges. A greasy man waved at them from behind the counter, his toothless grin taking up most of his oily face. Darren waved happily smiling back at him before running up the creaking stairs.
“And who was that?”
“Landlord, yeah he’s nicer than he looks actually.”
He jumped the last step then ran down the short hallway with a few gnarled doors lining it.
“And she should be…This one!”
He stopped in front one of the doors, locks lining all the way up it. He raised his hand up and started to pound against the door, knowing she had made it able to withstand this kind of abuse. There was no answer.
“Eve, it’s me and Damien…come on open up!”
Again there was no answer except the creaking of the building and a meow from inside the room. Damien stepped forward, his assault on the door a little quieter than his brothers, then he waited standing rigid in front of the door.
“She always at least checks the door…”
Damien nodded, then raised his leg in front of him and brought it down against the wooden door, once, then again sending wooden shards flying in all directions around them leaving part of the door still handing to the wall by the locks securely placed in it.
They stood at the door looking inside the darkness, a low raspy breathing the only sound coming from the room. They both unzipped their jackets and rested their hands against the hilt of the blades securely attached to their sides.
They both walked forward, their steps slow as they looked back and forth around the room their blue eyes glowing faintly in the darkness. There was a crunching noise under their feet making them pause to look down.
“Dead birds…”
Both of them looked down, the bird corpses littering the floor, tossed as broken but still intact. Darren leaned down, his brother standing close beside him as he turned one of the bird bodies between his hands.
“Their all dry…no blood at all.”
Then they heard it again, the raspy labored breathing coming from some spot in the darkness of the room, and a faint, almost soothing meow that seemed to be quieting the breathing. Darren raised himself up off of the floor and moved forward his brother following behind him until they were near the window; the lone shaft of light illuminating the floor in front of them. A shadow shifted on the other side of the light, two red orbs opening to stare at them blankly, watching them with their glowing intensity.
“Eve?”
Damien took at deep breath as he looked past the light at the shaking body against the wall surrounded by dead bird bodies and one calm cat. The body shifted again, shakily going to their feet and walking into the shaft of light.
And there Eve stood, her eyes a bright bloodshot red and her skin shallow and pasty, a thick red line etched from her lips to her chin. Her hands were covered in blood as she continued staring blankly ahead, one hand rubbing the side of her neck where two purple puncture wounds sat, bloody graffiti against her skin.
“Kill me…”
They walked out of the door onto the bustling sidewalk, the limp body hanging from Damien arms, the chocolate colored cat laying against her chest her gun sitting next to it. They continued down the sidewalk ignoring the odd looks from some of the people with enough time to question the limp bloody mangled body against his chest with a cat and a gun. The black car sat parked near the sidewalk where they had jumped out of the car earlier the driver leaning against his door smoking a cigarette casually as he watched people go by. Upon sight of the brothers and two new arrivals he practically jumped into the car his cigarette landing half smoked where he had been standing. They opened the doors and slowly got in moving at a sluggish pace that could put the city traffic to shame. They rode on, not seeming to notice the constant stop then start of traffic, or the long seemingly never ending red lights. The ride continued in silence, the acute ears of the driver remembering the twists and turns that had taken them there. Then when the car stopped in front of the academy the air shifted and seemed to carry with it the weight of dread. The brothers each got out of the car, silence and dread still thick in the air as they made their way up the steps carrying the peculiar load with them. Silence continued to assault them as they walked down the hall, hunters looking at the heap of their number three, their eyes fixed on the purple wounds on her neck. Then finally the silence was broken by quiet murmurs throughout the hunter community.
“Hope she’s dead…if not she will be…”
“Figures she was no better than them anyway…”
“From the family she came from it’s no surprise really…with their…practices…”
“Serves her right with what she did.”
“Ha maybe that means the number three spot is open then…”
Darren’s fist tightened as he listened to the murmurs erupting from all the hunters, a mantra that continued to remind him of his friend’s state. He spun on his heel, his brother still walking down the hall with calm eyes, and then shouted to the entire crowd sending it into silence once again.
“Will you all shut the hell up! If it had been one of you there would be more respect in your damn words! I doubt one of you has done half as much for the academy as she has! You worthless bastards, I hope to see the day when it happens to one of your own!”He spit at the ground in front of him walking back up to stand by his brother as they approached the director’s door. He needed to be the first to know, it was his job after all. Darren was the one to knock since his brother’s arms were full, there was a grunted ‘come in’ from the other side of the now fully wooden door.
“So did you find her?”
His concentration was on the papers in front of him as he mumbled to them without even glancing in their direction knowing that they had probably had to drag and carry her back after being laid off for a short amount of time.
“I’m guessing you had to carry her back.”
He let out a sarcastic laugh writing something on the paper in a quick almost jerky motion when he noticed their silence.
“What happened?”
His words cut short when he looked up seeing her lying in Damien’s arms, then his eyes moved to her neck and he visibly choked on his own air. Her head shifted slightly, her eyes opening a fraction to look at the director.
“They wouldn’t kill me…you need…better hunters…”The cat let out an almost shrill meow and she closed her eyes again letting her head hang to the side.
Leon stood up and walked towards them, his huge muscle bulk of a body looking odd in his tailored Armani suit that had to be custom fitted to his seven foot two body.
“What kind of bite?”
“You know very well what kind it is Leon.”
Damien spat at him his eyes narrowing; just from the discoloration it was apparent that this was the poisonous bite of a vampire.
“Have you looked at the other wounds?”
“Yes, they’re all old but refuse to heal, I’m guessing since she’s been living off pigeon blood thanks to her little friend here.”He moved his arm to better show the cat still sitting comfortably on her chest looking at them all with curious green eyes.
“And from the looks of the marks on her back I’d see she had a run in with a werewolf.”Darren stated matter of fact his eyes focusing on Eve’s ribs making sure she was still breathing. Leon ran his hand through his long brown hair letting out a loud sigh before going back to his desk laying his hand in his hands occasionally glancing back at the people still standing at his door.
“I’ll have to call the council.”The brother both looked at each other and simultaneously said,
“Which one?”
“Both.”There was more silence as they looked at each other knowing it was inevitable, and that now there was going to be many problems started from this.
“So what do we do with her till then?”
Damien looked at Darren out of the corner of his eye, both knowing the answer but trying to buy a little time before the call had to be made.
“What we always do with vampire prisoners.”Darren stepped forward his fists clenched by his sides,
“She’s no prisoner; she’s one of us…”
“Yes…one of us…who has apparently been denying a thirst for blood for weeks now and could probably dry out any one of my hunters just from hunger! And you want me to risk lives because we know her! How long do you think their kind can live off of bird blood Darren?!”Darren averted his gaze finding the ground more interesting than the conversation at hand.
“I’ll take her to the Cells Leon…”He walked to the desk motioning for Darren to come over and take the gun off of her.
“Put the gun on the desk, the cat I’m not sure, it clawed me last time I tried to move it.”Leon looked up as the gun was practically slammed onto his desk his eyes locking with the green of the cats.
“Beasts understand beasts, let it stay with her.”She opened her reddened eyes to look at Leon, a smile on her face as she did.
“At least you understand.”
“Why didn’t you do the job yourself Eve?”
“Apparently…this disease…has a need…for survival…I tried…”The brother’s eyes widened margins as she said those words, their childhood friend trying to kill themselves. It was simply out of the question a thought that had never touched the edges of their minds until then. And then finally it seemed to sink in, the fact that she was what she hated; what she lived to kill. Damien walked back to the door, Darren quickly opening it for him leaving Leon staring at the natural patters in the wood reaching for the phone on his desk and making the call that would bring the council of hunters and the council of vampires together for the first time in a very long time. Now the halls were empty, most likely the other hunters had run to the director to ask him what was going on. They continued walking until they stood in front of a metal door, large strange markings carved into it from top to bottom, wards of some sort. A small speaker sat on the wall next to it one single red button lying under it.
“Darren could you press the button?”
His brother simply nodded reaching out to push the red button down an old voice crackling through the speaker.
“What danger is it?”
“Minimal I’d say. They are however…thirsty.”The door opened with a click the voice disappearing as they walked though the threshold and down the stone steps of the Cell’s.
“It seems more like a dungeon.”
“Quite.”
“Did you know a lot of people say that brothers of the demon soul.”
A voice echoed up the stairs to them making them glare at the stupid name they had been given by the vampire aware.
“You should hurry I’m looking forward to inspecting this one, how interesting, a vampire hunter turned vampire. Ah life and its little quirks.”Both brothers gritted their teeth hearing the nasal voice of the doctor from the room below. It was his job to examine everything that had to stay in the academy vampire or not. It was also his job to watch everyone who had to reside in the cells, making sure the proper wards were in place for their stay.
Damien took a deep breath filling his lungs with the rancid smell of burning flesh medicine and arcane magic that filled the air. Then he walked forward his brother hesitant behind him at the sound of the old doctors voice, you only got bad memories from the examinations from him. He was a man of curiosity and he often liked to cut up the more interesting ones to find out how they worked.
“Come on you two hurry, I wish to see the daughter of the vampire eaters before I die!”They both cringed, actually feeling better about their ‘nickname’ than they had before. When they made it down the steps the doctor was waiting for them rubbing his gloved hands together.
“Finally. I thought maybe you two had decided to kill her on the way down.”He walked over to the long table in the middle of the stone room motioning for the two to sit her down.
“Now you both just go on…I’ll take care of her.”
He put her down, the cat shifting more so that it would not fall of as he sat heron the cold metal table. Hesitantly they walked back to the steps knowing that the more you angered him the more he poked around with his scalpel.
“So what does blood taste like little Eve?”
He pulled out a tray with shining metal utensils gleaming in the light thrown off from the one bulb right above the table.
“Just a just a little bit like Irony…”
{gah chapter two is done!! Chapter three is already written and checked and such but unfortunately it is kind of short! >.> at least in comparison! XD}
