A Daemon and His Work

Smiling back at her, Samael waited until she left before taking off his long sleeve shirt, revealing fresh bruises and still-healing scratches, along with old scars. He pulls on the t-shirt Yuuki gave him, removing his pants next, showing off more wounds, inflicted by the vampires. The young man was well-muscled, from years of running and fighting. After he was fully dressed again, he scoots his dirty clothes into a pile in the corner, trying to make them seem invisible. Leaning against the wall, he closes his eyes, smiling a little. He was beginning to like Yuuki, but he wasn't sure if she liked him back, thinking she still thought him as what he was, a Daemon, who nearly killed her, then cursed her. He stayed in this position until he heard the door open and Yuuki walk down the stairs, where he opened his eyes, smiling at her.
 
Yuuki closed the basement door behind her once she was upstairs and went over to the bathroom, figuring it might be better to change first and then go check on her mother. She stripped down naked and tossed her dirty clothes in the hamper, then pulled on a snug tank top and a pair of soft shorts that she had had for years. Glancing in the mirror absently, she pulled her hair from her face into a messy bun just to get it under control. Finished, she left the bathroom and wandered into her mother's bedroom.


The second that she walked into the doorway, something felt wrong. It was cold and the window was half open. She frowned and walked toward the bed, jumping with a startled squeak as the bedroom door slammed shut behind her. Staring at it for a moment, she shook her head and smiled at her own paranoia. The wind, of course - the window was open, after all. She relaxed and walked over to the bed, only to realize that her mother wasn't there. Blinking, she pulled back the blankets and found nothing but a few small streaks of something that looked suspiciously like blood. She looked around the room uneasily, feeling her spine start to tingle. Something was wrong.. She backed toward the door slowly, fighting off the feeling that she wasn't alone in here.
 
Hearing a door shut loudly upstairs, Samael ran up the stairs, shouting, "Yuuki! Are you alright?" He followed the way he had remembered her taking to her mother's room, hoping to find where she was changing. Hearing a soft footstep to the door to the left of him, he twisted the door knob, spilling in like a blind bull in an elevator, tripping over his own feet, and landing on the ground, looking up at Yuuki. "You okay? I heard the door slam."
 
Blinking a few times and looking down, Yuuki couldn't help but laugh as she realized it was Samael laying there on the floor. He just looked so silly there. Soon, though, the severity of the situation sunk in. She bit her lower lip and looked back at the bed, then to the window, then back at Samael.


"Mother is gone, there's blood on the bed, the window's open, and I thought somebody else was in here for a minute.." she said, then shook her head. "It must have just been you downstairs or something," she added dismissively, trying not to panic. "She's never wandered off before and she barely has strength to stand. There's no way she could have climbed out the window herself and she would never do that. I take her out whenever she asks. Samael.. She couldn't have left alone.." she babbled rapidly, her slender body quivering anxiously and her hands glowing faintly, though she didn't notice that.
 
"Those bastards." Samael said, instantly going for the worst possible scenario. His eyes glower dangerously as he gets back up. He unconsciously embraces her, feeling her shaking body beneath his. After a second, he pulls back, shocked at what he had done. "I am sorry." He mutters, slightly embarrassed. "Yuuki...what do you want me to do?" He asks, falling to one knee, one hand over his heart. This was typical standard if something terrible like this was to happen.
 
Yuuki immediately wrapped her arms around Samael when he embraced her, not really thinking about the gesture. She released him easily when he pulled back, thinking that it was her fault that he was apologizing. Shaking her head a little, she watched him kneel and blinked. What was she supposed to say? At first she wanted to demand that he find her mother, but that was impossible, wasn't it? Did he know who had taken her? She realized then what he had said, and it started falling horridly into place. Feeling suddenly sick, she was starting to wonder if the presence she had felt wasn't Samael after all.


"Samael.." she began, slowly looking down at him and trying to stop her shaking. "Is there any way that you can tell whether or not we're alone here?" she finally asked, not really sure that she even wanted to know the answer.
 
Looking up, Samael replies, "There are certain strains of vampire bloodlines that hint at being able to sense other vampires in the area, but I wouldn't know if I had that ability. I can certainly try." He stood up, his hands palm out at his sides, as he took in a breath, willing his lineage to find anything else in the house. Closing his eyes, he felt the presence of humans outside, and...something he couldn't identify inside. Opening his eyes, he said to Yuuki, "There is something in the house with us. I do not know what it is, but it isn't a vampire." Taking in a breath, he tries to find where this entity is. The closet.

Opening it, a dark-clad figure pushes past him, rushing for the window. After shouting a quick, "Stop!" Samael grabs for his sleeve, catching him just as he was about to hop out the window. Wrestling the man beneath his smaller body, Samael took off his hood, revealing a surprisingly young face. "Who are you and why are you here?"

The man replied with a quick, "Why are you here? Why are any of us here?" and laughing afterwards.

"Stop playing games! Tell me who you are. Did you take my master's mother?" Samael shouted fiercely.

"I have done no such thing." The man says, still grinning. "I am not a vampire, nor a Daemon. I am a hunter, after the vampire that had just recently left yonder window."
 
Watching Samael silently, she waited until he opened his eyes and said there was something with them. She stepped back a little and simply observed as he moved to the closet and opened it. Faster than she could follow, something darted out and Samael had grabbed it. She blinked and moved closer curiously, though not close enough to be grabbed if the person was dangerous. Staying silent at first, she listened to the conversation, startled to hear that the young man was apparently hunting a vampire. She pondered that, but then realized that this confirmed her fears. Her mother had been taken from a vampire.


She gasped and ran out of the room, going out to the living room and quickly pulling on her shoes and a sweater. In a flash she was back in the bedroom, and she eyed the hunter on the floor.


"What will it take to get you to tell us what you know about the vampire you were following? I haven't really got money and I don't feel like fighting. I just want to know where my mother is," she said, frowning a bit as she tried to restrain her worry.
 
This man was infuriating. His speech was not only old-fashioned, but it was as if he was mocking every action Samael did. When Yuuki ran back into the room, the man listened to her, the curved scar on his upper lip making it look like he was grinning impishly. "I am bound to my own Contract, like your Daemon here. My own master has told me to keep this whole matter as secret as possible, so, my dear, I cannot tell you about my target. If you will, madam, call your Daemon from me." Samael got up, deeming the crazy man not a threat at the moment, and trying to prove that he wasn't just a house pet.

The man sat up, smirking. "You would have to speak with my master to learn anything." Standing up, a white card fell from his pocket, whether intentionally or not, Samael couldn't say. Muttering, he said, "Damn, that vampire could be halfway across the world by now." Looking to Yuuki, he said, "I'm Press. If you find my master, tell him I sent you. That might keep him from striking you down immediately." Moving to the window, his laugh could be heard several seconds after he had jumped out the window, flipping up his hood while he went.
 
Yuuki frowned a bit as the man claimed to have his own master and said that he couldn't help her. She shook her head a little and didn't even notice the card, glancing at Samael as he spoke. It was obvious that he didn't care for the man. She looked back at the stranger and didn't even have time to respond before he was gone. For a moment she didn't move, but then she turned and sat on the corner of the bed.


"My mother is gone. If we are to believe the one who claims to be a vampire hunter, then we can assume a vampire has her. We can also assume it's a vampire who has something to do with you, because I can't think of any other reason a vampire would kidnap a sick woman and not just jump some young person on the street or whatever. So. We either hunt down the vampire ourselves with guesses from you as to who it would be and whre they are. Or we can try and tail the vampire hunter, though I doubt he would appreciate that. Or we can take his advice and hunt down his master in hopes of talking him into telling us who the vampire is, then in turn finding the vampire if he does indeed tell us," she summarized, then sighed and shook her head.


"If we go hunt down his master, we might be too late. If the hunter boy kills the vampire, he isn't going to bother asking about my mother and she might be hidden away somewhere. Oh, I don't know what I'm supposed to do, Samael. She got sick because of me and now I can't even keep her safe.." She looked down at her hands and bit her lower lip, feeling utterly useless.
 
"If it is indeed a vampire who wants to get back at me," Samael began, "then they won't kill her, at least not with both you and me to watch. They're all about theatrics, getting the most reaction from people." Reaching down to pick up the card that fell from the hunter's pocket, he turns it over. It was made of heavy paper, like a business card, but on the reverse side was a closed eye, a pawprint, and foreign letters within a pentagon. "Any idea what this means? I suspect that it is the calling card of the hunter's master, and it might be somewhere in the city. That hunter smelled like he came from the city, so we should start our search there. If he can help us, than we need to find him." He said with absolute certainty.
 
Well, that was comforting. Her mother wouldn't die until Yuuki was watching. Just great. It occurred to her that if she and Samael found her mother at all, the vampires could very well decide to kill both of the females just to get to him. They had tried that before, hadn't they? Her memories were still a little fuzzy and she didn't remember how they got out of it, but she did remember being caught and bitten. She sighed and took the card, examining it thoroughly. At first glance she was going to shake her head, but then something caught her attention.


"Wait a second.." she said, getting up and going into the kitchen. Rummaging around a pile of papers on the counter, she soon drew out a flyer that a girl had been handing out on the street. It was some new club for teenagers in the city, apparently. What Yuuki really cared about was at the top of the flyer was the exact same closed eye symbol. None of the other parts were on here, but maybe it was a start. "I guess we can look here and then figure out what to do," she said to Samael, then looked herself over and him. "If we're going to get into a club, we're going to need to change. Go in my mom's closet and look in the back, there are a bunch of guy clothes from when my uncle visited. Try to put together something dressy, like black pants with a button-up shirt or something. I'm going to go downstairs and change," she said, opening the basement door and running down the dim stairs.
 
Following her into the kitchen, Samael looked over her shoulder, the words written on it meaning nothing to him: he had never been taught to read or write, something that embarrassed him greatly. Walking back into her mother's room at Yuuki's prompting, he felt sort of weird being in there without her, like he was trespassing. Shaking away the thought, he moved to the closet, finding the clothes she told him about. Changing for the second time that day, he put on black pants and a button-up shirt of the same color. The clothes were a little big for him, and he had to constantly pull up the pants to keep them from falling off his thin frame. Running his hands through his hair to make it stay down and look presentable, he went back into the kitchen, fumbling with the buttons of the shirt.
 
Yuuki rummaged around in her drawers, trying to find something that would fit in with a 'hip club' scene. She never went out to places like that, but she had been to a similar place once for about an hour before she got bored and left. Honestly, she loved dancing, but no guys ever wanted to dance with her and she didn't want to just dance with the girls. She sighed inwardly and pulled a dark red dress out of her drawer. It was strapless and clung to her torso, lacing up the back with a black ribbon and bow. Around the bottom it flared out, hitting just above her knees. She brushed her hair out straight until it shone, the brown locks hitting a little below her shoulders.


Looking around her room, she tugged on some black heels and picked up a black purse that they could tuck the card and flyer in. Plus it had a can of mace in it, along with her ID and a little bit of cash. She grabbed a black sweater and slung it over her shoulder, then walked back upstairs and looked Samael over.


"I approve," she said with a smile, getting a belt from her mother's closet and looping it around his waist quickly. "Here, so you won't lose these while we're walking. It'll take a few minutes to get there," she went on, then stepped back and examined him. Definitely passable for getting in. "Do we look good enough to get in, you think?" she asked uncertainly, glancing down at herself.
 
"You certainly," He coughed sheepishly, looking at her outfit up and down, "do. I wouldn't know about myself." Fumbling with the buttons on the front of his shirt, he got the first one in the hole, then began working at the second. He had never had to dress like this before, with nice clothes, so he didn't know exactly how to work the buttons. Leaving them and sighing, he said, "You look lovely."
 
Stepping forward again, Yuuki fastened the rest of Samael's buttons easily and looked him over. He did look really good, she admitted internally. It was no wonder that girl had tackled him in the park. She smiled at the thought and pulled her sweater on, a faint blush touching her pale cheeks as he complimented her.


"Thank you. I think we'll get in pretty easily. Come on," she said, taking his hand and leading him to the door. She turned and shut it behind them, then went down the stairs and started down the sidewalk toward the center of the city. "Can you dance? I don't know how much blending in we're going to have to do. If not, that's fine, we'll just scope things out from the sidelines."
 
"I've never danced before." Samael mutters lowly, slightly embarrassed. It was true, he never had. But, he knew the gist of it. "You just move to the music, right?" He asked, following her. Again, people gave him odd looks, and he returned them. He was getting the same feeling as when they were in the store, the paranoia. Of course, with what had happened both yesterday and today, who could blame him? It seemed that the vampires cared more for their precious weapon than he thought, that they would probably do anything to keep him in their grasp. Sure, he could see why the vampires wanted to keep their superweapon, he could level armies, could sneak in and out of most places he wanted, among other, more dangerous, powers. Shaking his head of his thoughts, he followed Yuuki out into the city.
 
"Yes. It's alright that you never have. I'm not a very good dancer, but I wish I was. It looks like such fun, to have somebody move along with you. It's like a conversation with no words," Yuuki mused, getting lost in thought for a few moments before she shook her head and shrugged slightly. "We'll stick to the walls and see if we can find anything. I'm not even really sure what to look for, but I'm assuming we'll know it if we see it," she added, glancing at businesses occasionally as they walked by. Most of the small stores were closed by now since it was so late, but the closer they got to downtown, the more alive things got. People were walking the sidewalk, cars were driving along the road, and there was music coming from a few different places.


"Relax and don't act nervous or they'll get suspicious when we try to get in. Just stay calm and act like we're a couple," she said quietly as she saw the line for the club that she was aiming for. She gave him a reassuring smile and laced her fingers with his, walking past all of the people waiting in line and approaching the bouncer with a cute expression. Luck was apparently on her side, because he didn't even question her before ushering them in. Maybe Samael looked like a celebrity or something. She moved inside and paused, looking around at the crowd.


"Uh.. What now?"
 
A shiver ran up his spine when Yuuki touched Samael's hand, interlocking her fingers with his. If he had any chance of acting normal, her touch shot it away. Sending the bouncer a disinterested look, he was surprised when they got inside without any sort of questioning. At her question, he stopped looking around. It was so different from the outside, the music so loud, the people so different. No one gave him any sort of odd look, as if they were used to oddly dressed people.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a door on the other side of the room, with "Employees only" in large red print along with the same insignia from the flyer. "We should try over there." He said pointing.
 
Yuuki looked over the heads of the dancers and nodded when she saw the door. They could walk around everybody and make it over there, but they'd have to be crafty about it to avoid being detected. She took Samael's hand again and led him through the dance floor slowly, staying away from the middle and just weaving her way around the outer edges. Making sure to go slow and not lose him in the mix of people, she stopped as they got close to the door. Now they just had to get in it without being seen. The only people near the door now were couples that were making out in the shadows and ignoring everybody else.


"Well, I got us close but I have no idea how to get inside without being seen. It's your turn for a brilliant idea," she said, looking up at him with a blank shrug.
 
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