"Why are you doing this?" The little girl asked pathetically, her high-pitched voice wavering. Her wide, innocent eyes were full of fear, and her delicate, porcelain features were spattered in blood. She understood that something terrible was happening, but she couldn't even begin to fathom the reason to this tragic end to a peaceful life.

"Because your parents live only to kill my kind." The elegant lady standing before her laughed cynically, contempt written all over her features. The girl's eyes clouded in confusion as she stared at the lady. She was tall, and looked even more so from the vantage point of the little girl. She was wearing rich clothes, the bottoms of which were soaked in blood, and there was a fine layer of grime on the front part, where the blood has spurted out from the little girl's parents as they died violent deaths. She had classic noble Japanese features, with a hint European, giving her higher cheek bones and a haughtier look overall. She came across as cold and expressionless, the only thing the little girl saw in her eyes was sadness and self-loathing.

"But momma and papa wouldn't hurt anyone…" she mumbled naively, looking down at the floor. She was too young to understand that the red stuff soaking the carpet was her parent's blood, that the reason her feet were shaking was not because she was cold, but because she was scared. She was too innocent to understand that her parents had done a terrible thing to the woman before her. She was just the humble age of five, naïve in every way possible. The woman smiled a little bit, almost in a bittersweet way.

"I wish that I had been as innocent as you when I was a child…" she said wistfully, letting her hands fall limp at her sides. The lady looked around at the scene of destruction she had created. The once beautiful and elegant room was now tattered and shredded up, and blood was everywhere. There were only two corpses in the room, but she knew that in the other rooms of the house the remaining members of the family had been murdered as well. What must have been a familiar room to this little girl was buried under the signs of struggle, and disguised by the carnage. The parents were almost unrecognizable. It was a shame that they wouldn't just turn to dust like vampires. Now the girl would live with the memory of their pathetic, dead faces for the rest of her life. She looked back at the little girl, who was having trouble processing all of this.

"I think I'm going to let you live…" the woman said absently, looking almost longingly at the little girl.

It was then that the memory grew hazy and distorted in the little girl's mind, and the world of her childhood distorted into a place of darkness and disturbing images. The lady's face became twisted and cruel, and scary images of her dead parents and relatives came to the front of her mind, chasing her. She lived through it with familiarity, taking comfort in the horrors and pain of that night. She sneaked around the house, followed the whole time by the lady's cruel laughs.

I'll come back for you… she heard, and somewhere in the house a clock struck twelve, like it always did. The little girl stumbled, like she always did. A searing pain arose in her knee and she didn't even need to look down to know that there were shards of glass sticking out of her skin painfully, each of them no longer transparent due to the blood covering them. She had made the mistake of looking before, and she wasn't making it now. She turned around and saw the woman's sadistic smile.

"I'll come back for you…" the woman croaked, and the bell tolled again, a stirring, almost sinister sound that spoke of only her demise. Then the woman suddenly disappeared and the little girl was left alone in a house of shadows.

I'll come back for you… the voice echoed in her mind, as the clock sang for the twelfth and last time, and her already hazy world became overcome with black.

Devon opened her eyes, slowly. The world instantly came into focus. Her room, painted a blatant gray and only sparsely furnished, was small, but it suited it's purposes. All she needed was her bed and her gun. Her eyes went to the gun sitting on the desk, and she took comfort in the familiar sight. It was the only consistency she had. Sitting up, she blinked the sleepiness away and ran her fingers through her hair, getting it away from her face. The dim lighting did little to deter her as she quickly put together her appearance and got dressed. The last thing she did was reach for her gun, flinching slightly at the cold touch it gave her. She wrapped her fingers around it and felt its silver grip, soothing on her injured palm. It was a silver, semi-automatic, with the Roman numeral for 13 etched crudely on the side with vampire blood. Her calculating black eyes seemed to light up as they ate in the appearance of it.

"Demenos… Thirteen…" she whispered in awe, running her fingers over the 13.

A sharp knock on her door suddenly brought her out of her thoughts. "Are you ready, Devon?" a masculine voice asked her. Devon kept her face impassive as she yanked open the door.

"Of course." She said abruptly, walking past him.

"There's no need to be like that… I understand if you're nervous, after all, you haven't had any assignments since your accident…" the man trailed off when she stopped walking. Devon spun around angrily, jabbing her gun up against his neck. She hadn't meant to get this fired up right after waking, but he just had to go and mention things she'd rather not talk about.

"You listen here, Kaien Cross!" she practically yelled, fury emanating off of her in waves, "Don't talk about things you have no business talking about." She hissed, lowering her voice in a threatening manner. Cross backed up, nodding furiously.

"Of course, sorry, my bad!" he grinned, but Devon was already turning around and walking away. "Don't you want to know about the assignment?" he called after her. When she didn't stop, he ran to catch up. "Well?"

"Then tell me." She commanded bluntly, not even sparing a glance at him.

"Well, you aren't hunting anything." That made her look at him. Disbelief and fury possessed her features momentarily, before being wiped away and hidden under a mask.

"Then what am I doing?" she asked quietly, maintaining her impassiveness.

"You're to protect the future organization president when he goes on missions." Cross said simply, smiling as if he had just given her the best job in the world.

"You think I want to spend my time babysitting a Level E? Sitting on the sidelines and saving his ass when he needs it? Who does the organization think I am? Do they take me as some kind of joke?" she seethed, fingering the hilt of Thirteen familiarly.

"They want you to take it easy since you just got injured." Cross pointed out.

"I'm better now! What happened, happened in the past and I'm stronger now! It won't happen again." She said bitterly, pushing past Cross and leaving him behind.

"Zero is in his study!" Cross called after her. As much as she didn't want to do the job, she might as well get it over with so things could go back to normal. When she got to his room, she hesitated. Should she just walk in and sit down and wait, or should she explain things? He should already know, shouldn't he? She sighed and composed herself, and then just knocked on the door, not giving herself another second to think about it.

"Come in." the voice came clearly. Devon opened the door quickly and slipped in, closing it quietly behind her.

"I'm here to report for duty, Zero." She refused to put the honorific at the end. No way was she acknowledging this guy as her superior. Not when he was someday just going to become a Level E and since he was just humiliating her with this assignment anyways. She knew, for a fact, that if she hadn't been injured recently she would be much stronger than him. At one point, she had been the strongest in the whole organization. And then the accident happened, and she's just back to being average. At least she wasn't a vampire, though.

"Who are you?" he asked bluntly. Devon blinked. What? He didn't know?

"I'm your… Protector." She chose her words carefully, wanting to piss him off, but not too much.

"Who gave you this job?" he demanded angrily, standing. Devon smirked.

"Take it up with Cross, not me. I just obey the orders I get from him." Saying that, she simply sat on the couch and played with Thirteen, lounging idly and not-watching him mull over her words. She almost laughed when she saw him get more and more pissed off with every moment that passed.

"I don't need a protector." He said after a long while of pacing.

"I'm sure…" She replied absently, running her fingers tiredly through her hair and wondering if anything interesting was going to happen soon. If not, she was going to ditch and go to the shooting range. Or maybe work on her fighting moves. Another long silence stretched between them, in which Zero grew more angry and Devon grew increasingly bored. Finally, the door opened and Cross stepped in.

"Oh, I see you've already… met. Devon, this is Zero, and Zero-"

"I already know who she is, and what happened to her." Zero dismissed with a wave of his hand, not wanting to hear the rest of it.

"So then what happened?" Devon challenged, setting down her gun. So he knew everything about her? Just like everyone else, he thought he knew shit about what had happened. Zero was quiet for a minute. "I thought so." She rolled her eyes and went back to her gun.

"You messed up." Zero suddenly said, and Devon froze. She messed up? Abruptly, she rose and pointed her beloved gun at him.

"You don't know shit." She hissed, her finger going to the safety. Zero flinched back, surprised at the killing-intent in her eyes. "You don't know what actually happened unless you ask me. And last I remember I never told anyone. So fuck off," with that, Devon lowered her gun and walked out on the two shocked men.

"She just…" Zero didn't know what to say about what had just happened.

"Devon is more than just another hunter, Zero. What happened to you happened to her, only her situation… Well… I shouldn't talk about that. Get ready to go, you two leave on an assignment together in an hour…" Cross paused.

"What?" Zero asked, glancing at him. He was almost hopeful that Cross wouldn't say something insensitive and stupid in this conversation, but of course that wasn't going to happen.

"If you ever need any blood, feel free, I'm happy to cut myself or you can just bite me, I'm sure-" Zero cut him off with a sharp punch to the face.

"Get out!" he yelled, shoving him out of the room and slamming the door after him.

Devon leaned over the metal railing and stared at her hands. Her right palm had a large scar on it, mostly healed but still a little tender. Her fingers had healed perfectly, but she could still imagine the mangled bones and torn flesh from that night. Clenching her fist, she was happy to only feel a small amount of pain.

"You ready?" Zero's voice asked from behind her. Devon nodded and stood, following him into the black car.

"What's the assignment?" she asked,

"Something's been drawing Level E's to a city in the east, so we get to eradicate the people organizing them…"

"Great." Devon said dryly, rolling her icy eyes. An hour-long silence followed afterwards, in which Devon's mind wandered and she tried unsuccessfully to ignore Zero's probing stares.

"What?" she finally asked after a while, her eyes meeting his for the first time in the hour.

"Nothing." He said simply, continuing to watch her. Devon resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

"Quit staring at me." She muttered, looking pointedly at him and then to the floor. Sitting next to this guy in a car for two more hours didn't sound that appealing, especially if he was just going to stare at her. Zero said nothing in reply to her comment, but he did look away for a while. And then Devon found herself staring at him. His angular features, his long-suffering eyes. She couldn't figure out his cold aura. Why he was always looking pissed or bored. He looked like he just didn't care about life. Devon's eyes found the tattoo on his neck. He was a vampire. It seemed unnatural to her. She hated all vampires, yet she was sitting next to one. She was even assigned to protect it. The bloodsucker had-

"What?" he suddenly interrupted her train of thought, turning his head and glaring at her, his eyes looking pissed. Devon jumped but managed to disguise the movement by shifting her weight around.

"Nothing." She said, mirroring his earlier comment. He looked at her disbelievingly. They just stared at each other for a while, neither saying anything. She didn't like the way he was looking at her, and he didn't like the thoughts that were so obviously going through her head.

"You have a problem?" he asked finally.

"Don't think that just because I'm here means I like you. I was assigned to this job." Devon replied instantly, a little bit of venom in her voice but not much. If anything, she just looked like she wanted to be anywhere but next to him.

"The same goes for me." Zero glared at me. She bit her lip. He was looking at her like she was so hateful. What was his deal? Devon mulled over this for a good ten minutes, still feeling his penetrating gaze piece her apart and examining her, until she just couldn't take it anymore. Just when she was about to start yelling, the whole world shut down around her. A sharp impact hit her side and she knew immediately that she was losing consciousness.

It took her a few moments to process what was happening, but by the time she realized what was going on, her instincts were already kicking in and she had begun to move. The first thing she did was grab Zero and yank open the door, jumping out just before the car slammed into a large brick building quite violently. Devon inhaled sharply as they hit the ground rolling, their limbs entangled and their bodies crushed together. After they came to a stop, she laid there for a second, trying to figure out their surroundings. They were lying together in the middle of a road. She quickly realized that it wasn't just some decrepit, abandoned street, but a quiet, small-town main road. Rising up, she dragged Zero off of the road just in time to watch a heavy truck zip by where they had been lying just seconds before. She decided they needed to get moving, fast, and started without even bothering to wait for Zero's opinion. Something had targeted their vehicle, they needed to get out of there before it realized they were still alive. They didn't get very far, though. They were just stepping into the first alleyway when Zero finally got it together enough to resist her, and they were forced to stop.

"Let go of me." He growled, snatching his hand back from her. Devon sighed and turned around.

"We need to get moving!" she hissed back at him, keeping her voice low.

"We should stay and fight." He insisted, drawing his Bloody Rose gun and cocking it. Devon's right hand went to the grip of her own gun.

"Of course not." Devon rejected immediately.

"It's our duty to stay and fight." Ah, so he decided to pull the duty card? Not if she had something to say about it.

"Well, it's my duty to protect you, and I can't do that if you rashly charge into battle with no plan!" she retorted.

"What if I don't want to be protected?" Zero challenged, beginning to look pissed.

"Do you want to die?" she asked pointedly. He might be strong but he wouldn't be able to do everything alone.

"Maybe I do." He said simply, and, that said, he went back over to the car, leaving her standing there, completely shocked. At first she was extremely worried for him. But then an anger grew in her chest. Did he know how much harder that made her job? Not to mention all that he was sacrificing if he was suicidal! He had a whole life in front of him, even if he was a vampire! He had everything set; A future as the Chairman of the Society, talent, good looks, connections, even lineage. He had everything that she had been working her entire life for, just by existing. But he would throw it all away? Why?

A gunshot startled her out of her internal questions, and she immediately rushed out to where Zero was now fighting several low-level vampires. Even if she was angry at him, it didn't matter, she still had to do her duty. And that would be fairly easy. She had no qualms killing vampires. Just at the sight of them, an intense hate coursed through her veins.

"Fucking vampires!" she hissed, drawing out Demenos and firing off a few shots, taking out one of the vampires just from surprise.

"I don't need your help!" Zero snarled at her, shooting at one of the vampires and missing. As he turned to look at her, he didn't see the vampire that was sneaking up on the other side of him. Devon's eyes narrowed and she pointed the gun at him and fired on shot, aiming straight for his forehead.

"Like hell you don't!" she rolled her eyes as Zero flinched away from the bullet and it hit the vampire dead center, immediately causing him to turn to dust.

"This is my fight." Zero insisted, shooting his gun again and hitting this time, taking out one of the two remaining vampires. The battle seemed to be suspended, and the three of them had an intense staring contest, Zero and Devon glaring at both each other and at the vampire. The vampire watched the exchange with interest. And after a while, the vampire just started laughing.

"You fools! Such a cute couple, fighting over something so petty…" he taunted. Angrily, Zero fired off a shot, but he turned his back to Devon to follow the vampires movements. Devon shot the vampire, taking it out in one hit, but at the moment it made contact, an intense pain screamed in her mind and she crumpled to the ground. In a shocked silence, she couldn't even make a sound, and could only reach forward desperately, hoping that he could hear her. But he didn't. Zero, still pissed and thinking the battle was done, didn't turn around until he heard her strangled cry a long moment later.

His eyes widened immediately, and he froze, unable to make a movement. A huge vampire stood behind her, and had knocked her gun away from her in one violent movement, taking away her only accessible weapon. He held her arms behind her back and had sunk his fangs into her neck, brutally tearing the skin, and penetrating deep.

Devon disliked the sensations she was getting. Her entire body tensed up, and although she was struggling, her strength didn't compare to that of the vampire's. She tried to ignore the feeling of blood being sucked out of her neck, and of the horrible slurping sound the vampire was making. She attempted every sort of self-defense move she had been taught, but her hand lacked the strength to bring him off of her, and all she managed to do was aggravate the old wounds. On top of that, he was gripping her arms so tightly she was beginning to lose the movement of them, although the tight pain, like a hundred thousand needles viciously stabbing her skin was still there. A desperate feeling rose in her chest, making her heart sink and throb at the same time. She was beginning to feel lightheaded. She senselessly elbowed and grabbed at her attacker, struggling to get him off her, doing her best, but she soon realized that it was hopeless. She really wasn't anything without her gun. Tears pricked her eyes. Was this really it? Was she this powerless?

"Stop…" she protested weakly, her strength ebbing away. Her vision began blurring, but she managed to see the motionless form of Zero, standing there. "Z-Zero… help me…" she whispered, but the words reached his sensitive ears, and snapped him out of his mindless state. Instantly, he shot at the vampire, knowing the bullets would be ineffective against Devon even if they hit her. The vampire recoiled and let go of Devon, who immediately crawled over to Demenos and shot blindly at him.

"Fool!" Zero shouted as a few bullets missed the vampire and hit their wrecked car. He rushed forward and threw himself on top of Devon as the car exploded violently. The last thing Devon saw before she blacked out was Zero's unconscious face in front of a wall of flame.

"How interesting." The tall, dark form watched from afar, a pleased smirk adorning her elegant form, lit up by the fierce explosion. She watched the shrapnel rain down on the two intertwined bodies with satisfaction. She enjoyed the wall of fire that seemed to leap from the car, and the way the whole town seem to catch on fire. But her expression turned to disgust when she watched the smaller form wrap her arms around the one on top before her arms became limp as she lost consciousness. "Who is that man?" she hissed, turning to her companion, who was waiting in the shadows.

"Kiryu, the vampire hunter boy." A dangerous aura began emanating from the woman. She was displeased. The man began to fear for his life as the temperature around them seemed to drop twenty degrees. "My lady?" the man asked hesitantly.

"Silence, fool!"

His life was extinguished with one silent, chilly glare. The woman's laughs followed the spreading dust as the sun set over the slowly burning town.

Well guys, I hope you liked this one! Sort of a new idea I had, and I'm liking it so far - it's very different from all my other stories... I plan on continuing, and I'll probably update this every other week or so. I'm not sure yet :) Let me know what you think, and if you have any ideas or corrections or anything please drop me a review!

Reviews might encourage me to write faster ;)