Title: Retrieving Darkness
Anime: Nightwalker, Midnight Detective
Pairing: Shido x Cain
Author: Sanyu-Kumiko
Rating: R

Introduction:

As I watched Riho practice her vampire skills by the moonlight couldn't help but reflect on the times I was her age: a young vampire in a new world.

Even we vampires can be innocents. Riho, like myself at her level, is filled with childlike curiosity and wonderment. Every new vampire learns that the role of blood is different. The crimson nectar of life is not the sap of being but the juice of survival tapped from a grail, the mortal body. The moon plays a different role as well. It plays a different tune on the world than it does for humans and only a select few of us ever get to hear the song of the night through immortal and mortal ears alike. The newborn vampire is like a young tiger with fangs, innocent and adorable yet as deadly as any killer beast.

My thoughts were ended by the light tapping of a small hand against my ear.

"Hey, Shido! Snap out of it, will ya?" The high nagging tone of my fairy comrade Guni wailed in my ear. I then realized that both Yayoi and Riho were staring at me expectantly.

"You went into one of your stupors again." Yayoi taunted me, running a slender hand against her own fabric-covered neck. "I asked you a question, Shido." She purred out my name slowly.

"Oh, sorry." I managed to mutter. I pushed my sunglasses up my nose and eyed both Yayoi and Riho as they watched me. "Could you please repeat the question?"

"I was offering to give you a little midnight snack." Yayoi said in her soft, husky voice. "You look a bit worn down." I noticed Riho blushing furiously at Yayoi's side. She always seemed very uncomfortable whenever I fed from Yayoi in front of her. I believed that Riho thought I enjoyed feeding from Yayoi in particular. That was partially true, seeing that I enjoyed feeding from anyone. However, I greatly appreciated Yayoi's charity and tried every chance I could to make the feeding as pleasurable as possible in return for her allowing me to survive without having to take a life.

They were both waiting for my answer.

"Uh . . . no, that's okay." I managed to blurt. "I'm still pretty full from the last time."

Yayoi seemed a little disappointed. Riho's eyes shimmered with hidden relief.

"Oh, then maybe later, Shido." Yayoi murmured sensually. Riho's eyes widened. Guni simply laughed.

"Mahahahahaa! Look at the idiot's eyes! They're gonna fall outta her head!" Guni wailed, obviously very amused.

"Guni, be nice." I scolded. Guni stifled her little mouth but still giggled uncontrollably. I turned to walk towards the car. Yayoi, laughing softly, followed behind me and Riho trailed at the end in silent embarrassment.

Women.

Part 1:

Shido sat in a small waiting room at Yoshiba Community Hospital. He had taken an entire end table hostage to hold his things. Small stacks of paperwork lie on the table along with a small Styrofoam cup with untouched, cold coffee provided for him by a concerned nurse three hours before. The doctors and nurses occasionally stopped in the doorway to watch him work but soon left, seeing nothing out of the ordinary about his behavior. He was a detective, and in a hospital police and detectives graced the halls on a regular basis.

Shido had taken this case a week before. The client, a Mr. Funakida, was the son of a wealthy businessman who had a stroke and was legally dead for over 3 minutes. Mr. Funakida's father was a very interesting case. He was resuscitated with the infection of a breed within him. The man's soul and a breed are now encased in an unconscious body. Shido had attempted to draw the breed out himself but because of the weak state of the patient he was unable to forcefully remove the infection.

Yayoi's department headed breed-immunization research and employed a man named Doctor Uritsu of Tokyo. Doctor Uritsu claimed to have developed a serum that can disinfect a living patient from the breed infection. This doctor would arrive the next morning so for now Shido was keeping watch over Funakida Sr. just in case the breed decided to act up.

He wished Guni were with him. The imp decided to stay with Riho to keep her out of trouble. Despite the cruel comments from Guni and a small spat every now and then the two were beginning to form a strong friendship. Shido admired their bond and yearned for a similar one. There just wasn't anyone to get close to for him. He didn't have anything in common with Guni or Riho other than being inhuman and his wish to keep his past hidden restricted much of the conversation friends participate in. His relationship with Yayoi, despite the jokes and intimate moments, was simply on a professional basis. She went out on dates and had her own work and separate life away from the agency. He truly was alone in his life and experiences.

How depressing.

Shido decided that he had sat in one place far too long. He tucked his papers beneath and arm and wandered out of the waiting area. After disposing of the ice-cold coffee he peeked into the isolation room where Funakida Sr. was. The room was lined with plastic sheeting. Indeed, the man was being handled no different than an Ebola patient. Nothing seemed amiss. Shido felt it safe to leave for a few minutes to wander the grounds and stretch his legs.

The halls were bare. It was 1:38 a.m. and the lights in the halls had been dimmed to conserve energy. Night-shift nurses slumped lazily over home and garden improvement magazines and emergency room doctors gathered in lounges for their breaks to chug stale coffee and watch the Late Show on a small, distorted black and white TV. Loved ones and family members slept on small benches outside of short-term patient's rooms and a janitor walked to a storage room carrying dead flowers from a newly vacated terminal illness suite.

Shido found a small corner where soda machines and candy machines lined the wall. A small box filled with newspapers and magazines stood against the wall as well. He had no need for candy or soda but did find the previous day's newspaper intriguing. After retrieving a paper he stepped into the cool, dark stairwell and sat on the nearest step to read it.

Halfway through the paper the soft tapping echo of shoes against the cement steps rang out from under him. The steps began to get closer. Shido stood and folded the paper into a messy, crumpled pile and let his light cerulean eyes peer into the darkness in all directions. The tapping was very loud now, as if right behind him but he saw nobody. His chest tightened. A familiar sensation ran through him. It started at his fingertips like frostbite, then worked its way up his arms and his spine to the back of his neck. Shido's breath hitched in his throat. This sensation was powerful and very familiar.

Cain.

"Hello, Shido." Came that low, heavily accented voice from the darkness. The footsteps had stopped. Shido nearly fainted from anxiety.

"What do you want, Cain." Shido managed to growl. His voice faded at the end of the statement and thus made it seem meeker than he preferred.

"I expected you to be happier to see me." Cain's voice replied coolly. He was still nowhere to be seen and that, to Shido, was very unnerving.

"What the hell do you want?" Shido howled loudly, becoming frustrated. "Why won't you leave me the fuck alone you ... you hellion!"

The only response Shido received was a grab from behind. An arm clenched around Shido's waist and an icy hand grabbed his neck at the throat and tilted his head up. The grip was so intensely powerful it choked and muted Shido's shocked cry. A body formed behind him and a cold breeze brushed against his ear. From the corner of his eye he could make out a halo of golden hair as it mixed with his own violent tresses.

"What a cruel way to address me, Shido." The voice murmured in his ear. Shido was paralyzed. He could neither speak nor move in Cain's grasp. His former master let out a soft chuckle before loosening his grip on Shido's neck to allow him to speak but kept the younger vampire tightly restrained.

"Cain . . . "Shido managed to gasp, "Why are you doing this?"

"I want you to come back to me, Shido. I've waited long enough, don't you think?" Cain whispered into Shido's ear. "I've been watching you play with your humans and I'm tried of waiting. I want things to be the way they used to be. With you at my side I will be happy once more. Don't you remember how happy you were, Shido? " Cain murmured. Shido could feel the older vampire nuzzle his hair. He pulled at his arms under Cain's grasp but was no match for the powerful supernatural. Shido didn't think Cain would kill him, but being unexpectedly violated without consent by something he equated with evil just wasn't a picnic in the park.

"Let me go, Cain." Shido commanded, finally finding his strength in his voice. Cain found this amusing and laughed a little at Shido's bold commands.

"I've brought you a little present, Shido." Cain whispered into the younger vampire's ear. This caused Shido to shiver and tremble under Cain's steel grip. The hand at his neck lifted and vanished at the side of his face. It reappeared. An index finger was glowing with Cain's powerful blood. It swelled at the severed skin and shimmered in the dark stairwell. The powerful scent of the blood caused Shido's stomach to ache. Inside he yearned for it like a parched man in a desert yearned for water.

"Take this." Cain said in his powerful voice. Shido's mind screamed and said otherwise.
"No! No, please! Not this!" Shido frantically wailed. Shido's attempts to turn and twist out the other vampire's grasp were in vain. Cain's finger pressed between Shido's lips and the blood sated with Cain's power trickled into the struggling vampire's mouth. Cain forced Shido to take it and the younger vampire's struggle simply drained him of energy. The force of Cain's arm around him tightened painfully and the addictive qualities of the blood took control. Shido fell still as the liquid poured down his throat. It fused through his body and lined every cell of his being. He had finally gotten rid of Cain's presence in him only to have it forced upon once more.

"Good, Shido." Cain whispered as he fed Shido the blood. "We will be one again soon, my beautiful child. You will forget all of this human heart nonsense and be the vampire I made you to be. You will become that magnificent creature you once were."

Shido's eyes closed. The blood had taken complete control. He felt exhausted and tired. Slowly his pale eyes lidded and his body relaxed in Cain's grasp.

"Remember, Shido... remember."