A Daemon and His Work

"I'm fine." Samael responded indignantly. "The real question is if you are. Are you?" He asks, looking at her sideways. Where the vampire had struck her, a bruise would surely form. The vampire had been holding back, he realized with a start. If he had really meant to do damage, he would have broken her cheekbone. The vampire had let them escape. "It's a-it's a trap!" He shouts, gathering stares. Then, lowering his voice, he repeated those three words, "We shouldn't go there. He has something planned there."
 
Yuuki nodded a little, knowing that her warm cheek was likely still red and would be a deep bruise before the night was over. Still, it would be worth it if they found her mother like she thought they would. She was about to cross the street as the signal changed, when Samael shouted and startled her. Tilting her head slightly, she listened as he told her that it was a trap and that they shouldn't go there. It was possible that he was right, of course, but they had no way of knowing for sure and it was the only lead that she had to work with.


"Trap or not, we have to go. Where else are we supposed to look? What else are we supposed to do? All we have to do is beat him there, right? It shouldn't be too hard," she reasoned, looking up at him for a moment, then tugging him with her across the street quickly before the light could change again.
 
"He's a vampire, he doesn't need to walk like us." Samael says. "I know you probably won't listen to me, but I strongly advise at not going to the warehouse." Despite his misgivings, he followed her. Part of his Contract, he supposed. But, he also realized, that even if she hadn't had a Contract with him, he would still follow her. Rubbing his eyelids with one hand, he cleared his vision, knowing he would have to have a clear mind in case there was a fight.
 
"I know that it might be a really stupid idea, but I don't know where else to go, Samael. We don't have any other leads. Let's just go check it out. We can be quiet and peek around a little bit, and if it seems sketchy, we'll leave really quick. What are you so worried about? At worst, you'll just have to find a new person for a contract," she pointed out, giving him a half smile and leading him along down the street. It didn't take long to get to the harbor, and she picked up a brochure from the little information stand. Scanning the map, she found the warehouse that she wanted and led Samael over to it.


"Okay. Just a peek around," she whispered, creeping over to the door of the warehouse. It was partly open but really dark inside, so she slipped in and stopped, letting her eyes adjust. There was no way she was going to walk in here blind. Soon she saw a faint light from one of the windows, illuminating the room enough for her to see that there was a chair in the middle of the floor. Strapped to it, barely conscious, was her mother. Without another thought, Yuuki ran over. "Oh, thank goodness.." she said, but when she went to touch her mother, her hand just passed through. The illusion faded and she blinked, confused. "Wait.."
 
Samael nodded, whispering under his breath, "But I don't want a different Contract. I want you." He didn't think she heard him, but if she did, he would wave it off, explaining that he didn't want to have to change again, which was halfway true. He didn't want to have to change, but he also didn't want to lose Yuuki.

When she ran forwards, going for her mother, he tried to catch her sleeve and keep her from running blindly into the fray like that, but he couldn't. Following her, he saw he confusion as the illusion dissipated, knowing that the vampire or vampires that had taken her mother would take this chance to burst in theatrically, making a grand entrance.
 
Yuuki stared at the spot where her mother had been, now nothing but an empty space. She blinked a few times and stepped back, now looking all around the deserted warehouse. Fear and panic started to set in, and she realized that the shadows in the corners were moving. She took another step backward and collided with something solid. Whirling around, she saw a figure that she faintly recognized as one of the vampires from the park. She gasped and turned to run, but another one grabbed her and the first came up, glaring at her viciously.


"Where is your little pet Daemon?" he demanded, and Yuuki realized that they didn't realize Samael was with her. She squirmed and spat on the vampire, not knowing how he'd react but refusing to hand Samael over. "I don't know where he is, and even if I did, I wouldn't tell you!" she declared, not looking around since she knew that there were at least four of them there.
 
Seeing Jun come behind Yuuki, Samael froze, not knowing what to do. He heard her and Lysander's exchange, and wondered where Jamie was. After she spat in Lysander's face, he promptly stuck her, in nearly the exact same spot the vampire at the hotel had. Seeing that snapped Samael out of his reverie, and he strode forwards.

"Let her go!" He shouted, gaining the attention of the two.

Quickly, a vampire, Jamie, it smelled like, grabbed him from behind. He didn't have his knife with him, couldn't preform the miracle he had last time.
 
Being hit again in the exact same place on her jaw hurt worse than Yuuki cared to admit. She cried out in pain and probably would have fallen over if she hadn't been held up by the vampire who was grasping her arms to prevent escape. Still, she would have gone on arguing with the vampire, if Samael hadn't stepped out of hiding and yelled.


"No!" she yelled desperately, wanting him to stay hidden. She saw him being grabbed from behind and began to squirm, trying to get away from the one who was holding her so tightly. "You're not allowed to have him! He has a contract! Go away!" she went on, glaring at the one who had questioned and struck her.
 
"If that's the case, then all we have to do is kill you." Lysander said calmly, as if he did this every night.

Samael struggled against Jamie, knowing that Lysander would have no mercy for Yuuki, except, if he maybe...but he knew that Yuuki would never allow him to. His master plan hadn't worked like he had wanted, the vampires hadn't quit their campaign for his power. Of course, they wouldn't. His powers had made the vampire race more powerful than the Elementals even, and they could command all races of supernatural origin into a huge war against the one thing that overpowered them. Humanity.
 
Yuuki blinked and scrambled to come up with something to say back. What was she supposed to say? She was a human girl who was in a contract with an odd boy that she didn't even fully understand, and now she was supposed to somehow survive against a bunch of vampires that obviously wanted her dead so they could have Samael to themselves. It was an absolute nightmare. She couldn't even fight, except.. Except what had happened in the apartment before? Had that really been Samael, or..? She had no time to think about it - all she could do was glare at Lysander.


"You can't kill me because then you'll never find out the secret of the seraphim!" she retorted, then blinked. What had she even just said? Honestly, she had no idea, but it sounded good. Bribe them with information. The only problem was, it was information that she didn't have and had never heard of before. "I mean.. uh.." she stuttered, uncertain.
 
Samael could practically see the gears working inside Lysander's head, deciding whether or not to believe what Yuuki said. To be truthful, Samael wasn't quite sure whether to believe what Yuuki said, it was such an unusual thing. Finally, Lysander said, "What do you mean, girl?" In the silence of the warehouse, his voice echoed, making his voice seem more commanding and in control than he really was. While it was true that Lysander was a higher-up in the ranks of vampires, he wasn't that high, barely scraping five hundred from what Samael had heard. Because of that, he was always looking for something that would make the elders like him more, and this could be it.
 
Unfortunately for Yuuki, Lysander ended up interested in what she said. The problem was that she didn't even know what a seraphim was or where the word had come from for her to declare it like that. What secret was she even talking about?! She hesitated and glanced at Samael, then looked back up at Lysander. There was no way that she could admit that she knew nothing now, but at the same time she couldn't make something up because she had no idea what it was even supposed to be about.


"You think that I'm just going to tell you? Yeah, right. I'm not stupid. Let Samael leave and then I might decide to fill you in," she snapped after another moment of thinking, deciding that if she was going to play this, she might as well do it right and get one of them out of here alive. He'd have a headstart before they called her on the lies, at least.
 
"No," Samael said forcefully. "I'm not leaving you." It was true, he wasn't going to leave without Yuuki. Not with Lysander around. That man was like a volcano, you couldn't predict when he'd erupt. Lysander, hearing Samael's outburst, strode over to him, tauntingly saying, "Little Halfling is developing feelings for his master, is he now?" Samael retorted with a defiant, "Like you would know anything about it. You haven't felt anything since after Lyssa left you." He could tell he was getting Lysander worked up, and that was what he wanted, to keep Lysander's anger on him and not Yuuki.
 
Yuuki was surprised as Samael refused to leave without her. Didn't he want to save his own skin? What if she ordered him to leave? He would have to do it. She frowned and watched Lysander go over to Samael instead of listening to her, tilting her head a fraction as he teased the boy about developing feelings. Yeah, right. As if that could possibly happen. Yet Samael didn't deny, he just flipped the conversation around to make Lysander angrier. It made her wonder, but she quickly pushed those thoughts away. Whether he was or not wasn't important right now and could be figured out later, if they survived.


"I'll tell you! I'll tell you the secret!" she declared, hanging her head in a defeated way and quivering a bit as though holding back sobs. She sniffled and started mumbling out words as though it were hard to speak, her eyes on the floor as she watched Lysander come back over to her. In an instant, she had wrenched her hand free of the vampire holding her and moved toward Lysander as if planning on pushing him. Before she even came in contact with him, he was forcefully thrown backward, just like the vampire in the apartment. She smiled, but she hadn't thought it all the way through. The vampire who still had hold of one of her arms drew her back in and she saw a flash of fangs. "Uh oh.."
 
Seeing Jun lean forward, panic consumes Samael. It was like last time, in the park, but worse, because he was powerless to do anything. Bringing his elbow back, and smashing it into Jamie's stomach, he fights away, his mind not comprehending what Yuuki had done to Lysander. Rushing forwards to meet Jun, he pushed the larger vampire away from her.

Grabbing her arm, he started running out of the warehouse, his protection instincts picking up.
 
The fact that the vampire had been pushed away from her didn't set in until she was racing along with Samael toward the door. Yuuki's heart was pounding like crazy and she felt her hopes rise considerably once they made it outside, but she knew that this still wasn't over. She recalled the way that they had to walk to get down here and knew that it'd be a lot shorter to get back to the main roads if they cut through the warehouses. Not even pausing, she tugged Samael's hand and led him straight down the middle of two that were used for storing boat supplies.


"Remind me to thank you later if we survive," she said to him, giving him a half smile even though she was still panicked and worried like crazy about her mother. Where in the world was she? Had she just been in a different part of the warehouse that they hadn't seen? Yuuki had no idea, and she wasn't about to suggest that they ran back there. "What are our chances of not running into that group of uglies again?" she asked, pausing in their sprint to turn and lead him down a small street.
 
"If we survive." Samael said reassuringly. "And our chances are slim. I apologize for dragging you and your mother into my troubles, but now there is no going back." As they slowed, he took a deep breath, realizing that he had been holding his breath. "For now, let's just get to safety." Every few steps, he would check over his shoulder to see if anyone was following them, giving a silent prayer to who knows who when no one was there.
 
Yuuki didn't say anything in response at first. She knew that Samael probably felt guilty about this whole situation since he was probably about to get the person that he was in a contract with killed by a group of angry vampires, but.. She just couldn't force herself to care. Of course she didn't want to die, and of course she wanted to find her mother safe and sound. Yet at the same time, she had never felt as alive as she did at this very moment. Adrenaline was racing through her system and awakening a side of her that she never suspected existed. She was thriving on this newfound sense of adventure and quickly growing addicted to the pleasant sensation. In the back of her mind, she thought that perhaps rock climbing would be a safer alternative in the future. The errant thought was so out of place that she actually laughed out loud as she ran, not caring if she seemed insane to Samael.


"This way!" she said, tugging him onto a crowded street. They were soon mixed in with a group of people heading downtown, giving them more cover. Thankfully their clothes made them blend in easily, though Yuuki did get a few looks because of the deep bruise on her cheek that translated into accusing frowns at Samael. She ignored all of that and laced her fingers with Samael's to keep from losing him in the jostling, laughing people. "By the way, you don't need to apologize. I think I can take some of the blame since I helped to make them angry," she said conversationally, looking up at him with a small grin.


"Come on, home's not far from here. We can hide there until we figure out our next move," she said as she led him away from the crowds and toward the quieter end of the city. After a few minutes, she saw a tall figure standing in the middle of the sidewalk. It was obviously male, but he wasn't walking and he didn't seem like a pissed off vampire. The closer they got, the more detail she could make out. He was tall and attractive, but old. Not elderly, but easily in his thirties or so. All of a sudden, two pairs of wings spread out from his back, pitch black. She froze and looked over at Samael. "Tell me that you know who that is," she whispered uncertainly. The figure said nothing, seeming to wait for something.
 
Samael stopped in his tracks, urgently leaning down to Yuuki's level and whispering, "I have no idea who it might be, but he could be of two races. One, an angel whose wings are dark brown and appear black in the night. Two, a Fallen angel. Both are equally bad. Regular angels absolutely hate Halflings and Daemons, while Fallens are former angels that committed some heinous crime. Oh, wait." Samael paused. "He may be a Daemon with wings, in which case, he might help or hinder us. If he decides to help, he'll want something in return. If he hinders, well, you get the idea." His heart was pounding. He had only heard of angels and their opposites through eavesdropping on vampires' conversations, his knowledge on them from questionable sources. "Our best bet is to walk on by him and hope he doesn't stop us."
 
"Absolutely none of that is reassuring to me right now, Samael. Remind me to teach you how to tell comforting lies later," Yuuki whispered back after Samael fell silent. So, two and a half out of the three options of what this man was, was likely to try and harm or kill them. They had a slim chance of him letting them go by, and apparently that was the only option. She nodded a little and held Samael's hand anxiously, starting to walk again toward the man. They weren't close enough yet to go out into the road to go around him without seeming even more awkward than they already did for stopping and staring at him like that. Her pulse was racing out of control and she carefully didn't look at the man, but his weight suddenly shifted as they he had just now noticed them.


"Yuuki," the figure said, in a voice that absolutely paralyzed her. It was.. familiar? She barely managed to look up at him, but when she did, she realized that his eyes were exactly the same as hers. Before that fact really set in, he raised his hand and she was thrown backward the same way that she had done to Lysander and the vampire in the apartment. She crashed into the side of a bus stop and fell to her hands and knees, breathless. The figure turned to Samael and tilted his head a fraction. "Halfling.."
 
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