Target Number IV
Todoroki's gaze was trained on the elegant figure across the room, the man overdressed for the location in suit pants and a silk vest over a white button down. Todoroki reached down to scratch his leg, fingers brushing the sharp wooden point protruding from the top of his boot. His breath caught when heavy red eyes slid to rest on his face for a moment, a smirk tugging at the corner of their owner's lips. Only when they had returned their focus to the red-headed girl before them did Todoroki sigh with relief and take a sip from the cup of coffee in his hand. He swallowed, the hot liquid rolling down the back of his throat as he typed a text message into his cell phone and sent it. It's him.
A few minutes later the bell above the front entrance of the café rang. The large silhouette of a young man filled the door as he stepped inside, casting a glance at Todoroki as he took a seat at the bar a few spots down from the target and his unwitting companion.
Todoroki waved his water over and ordered a slice of cherry pie; the man who'd just entered ordered apple. Sitting back in his booth, Todoroki slung one arm across the back and crossed his legs, thanking the waiter who he set the pie on the table without moving to eat it.
The redheaded girl excused herself to the ladies' room, insisting that she would be back as soon as possible.
Once his companion had disappeared behind the bathroom door, the elegant man tossed lazy looks across the room and Todoroki and his partner. He sighed, the sound drawn out to emphasize his exasperation, before walking out the front entrance, unhurried.
Ten counts later Todoroki was out of his seat and slapping down a ten to cover his bill. "If I'm not back in fourteen minutes, get that girl out of here." Tetsuo's nod was visible out of the corner of Todoroki's eye as he passed by. He heard the girl's cry of dismay mingling with the bell overhead as he stepped outside, his gaze sweeping across the dimly lit parking lot, ears perked for the slightest giveaway. He crept across the lot, crouched so his fingers were within easy reach of his weapon. A car beside him roared to life, startling him into the side of his own vehicle. Todoroki fumbled with his keys as the car peeled onto the road, sliding behind his wheel and putting the vehicle in reverse, glancing into the rearview mirror as he backed out past the empty car on his other side.
Todoroki was on the highway off of which the café sat when hot breath tickled his ear. "Take the next exit," a silken voice breathed, "or I'll bite."
The car felt forty degrees colder as he complied, dutifully activating his blinker as he turned onto the spiraling ramp. Todoroki struggled to keep his breathing even as his heartbeat thumped out of control. "Where next?"
"There's a pull-off in four miles. Stop there and give me the keys."
The drive was silent, tension building between driver and passenger with every passing second. At long last, Todoroki pulled off the road and shut off the car. He tossed his keys over his shoulder, calculating his strategy as they dropped with a metallic clink. He leaned forward and yanked the stake from his shoe, twisting in his seat and stabbing at the vampire in the back seat of his car.
Cold, hard fingers caught Todoroki's wrist, pressing against the skin hard enough to bruise. "Tch." The vampire's head tilted to the side as one corner of his lips lifted to reveal a single sharp tooth. "Crafty are we?" He bent Todoroki's wrist back, eliciting a cry of pain and causing him to drop the stake. The vampire scooped up both weapon and keys, giving them a frown before rolling down the passenger side window and throwing them over the cliff outside. "Now that that's out of the way," he said, grip not loosening, "I suggest you introduce yourself. I like to put a name to my meals."
Todoroki's words stuttered out of his mouth, catching on teeth and tongue as he spoke. "All…all you need to know is that I'm a vampire hunter. My name does…it doesn't concern you. To summarize, no." A shiver shot up his arm as a cold thumb rubbed circles into the pulse of his wrist.
"I see." The pitch of the vampire's voice dropped several notes, settling into a dulcet velvet tone that rolled off his lips in intoxicating waves. "I'll go first then. My name is Thomas Arclight." Thomas leaned forward, his eyes half-lidded as they burned into Todoroki's own. "I'd be pleased if you'd tell me yours."
The urge to comply with his wishes was overwhelming. Todoroki choked out his refusal, tongue growing heaver in protest with each syllable. "You are target number four, a powerful incubus. Attempts to engage in conversation are to be avoided. To…to summarize…" Todoroki tugged weakly on his right arm, trapped between his body and the back of his seat, a distant lucid corner of his mind telling him to look away, break free and try to call for help. He had pepper spray in his back pocket that would slow Thomas—no, target number four—down long enough for Tetsuo to arrive with backup. He swallowed down a shaky breath. "Takashi Todoroki."
The tip of Thomas's nose brushed against Todoroki's, leaving a tingling sensation that spread from the point of contact. "Sounds like you're a little far from home." His breath tickled his captive's lips, leaving behind the illusion of condensation. Thomas licked his lips, staring into Todoroki's eyes through blond lashes. "Did you come all this way just to find me?"
Against his will, Todoroki's gaze dropped to the moist mouth just a breath from his own. His mind was lost to the incubus's spell, his consciousness suspended in a fog. The cool fingers of Thomas's free hand ghosted along the skin at the nape of Todoroki's neck. The thumb pressed against the bone behind the hunter's ear, tilting his pliant head back to reveal the soft stretch of neck from jawbone to shoulder blade.
Thomas leaned in, lips grazing his victim's jawline on their way to the pulse just beneath it. His tongue ventured out from between his lips, leaving a wet stripe on Todoroki's neck. He chuckled at the breathless noise he received and pressed his lips to the spot before speaking. "It's almost a shame that I have to kill you. That was cute." Thomas bit down, two shots of pain heralding the puncture wounds his canines made. He drank deeply, pulling the blood from Todoroki's veins.
Behind them, the back windshield shattered, followed by an exclamation of, "Todoroki!"
"Fuck!" Thomas pulled back, reaching for the door handle to make his escape.
Still hazy, Todoroki reached out to stop him, not able to discern how much of his desire to keep Thomas was from the preternatural aphrodisiac and how much was the faint memory of his objective.
The vampire snarled and bent the hunter's arm back, a sickening crack sounding through the car before he dove out of it, taking off into the night.
A pair of gunshots rang after him, and Tetsuo's face appeared, framed by the broken glass of the back windshield. "Are you all right?"
Todoroki nodded even as he drifted off in a pool of the hot blood streaming down his neck, pain lost to unconsciousness. Time passed in a blur of yelling and flashing lights, quick snatches of conversation concerning "blood loss" and "transfusion". Pictures of concerned faces came to him, Cathy and Kotori sitting at his bedside, getting along uncharacteristically well, Tokunosuke bringing him scraps of snack food he'd smuggled in, Tetsuo muttering about how he shouldn't have left Todoroki alone. These Todoroki knew to be reality. But he was haunted by smooth, otherworldly features and enticing velvet words spoken in a conspiratorial whisper, butterfly touches and sparkling white teeth. Todoroki was released to his friends two weeks after his late night admission with the assurance that he would be fine, and in another week was sufficiently recovered to be back on the job, spending long nights staking out at all-night restaurants and hoping for another run in with target number four.
Because if there was one thing he'd learned from his near-fatal encounter, it was that the true power of an incubus lay in the victims who survived, for without fail they would seek another brush with death.