Nearly ten o'clock at night and his phone was ringing. Of course it would be as he was about to curl up and sleep for a full ten hours like he hadn't been able to do for a solid four weeks, so he was half-tempted to ignore the call…then he thought about his pitiful bank account and he growled as he accepted the call.

"Yeah?" Ichigo said in a barely civil tone.

Whoever was on the other end of the line either didn't notice Ichigo's tone or chose to ignore it as they asked rather cheerfully, "Hello, do I have the pleasure of speaking to Mr. Kurosaki?"

Rubbing his eyes, Ichigo said in a tired tone, "Dr. Kurosaki doesn't live here. You must have misdialed."

There was a surprised gasp at the other end even though Ichigo himself wasn't at all surprised. There was a list a mile long for why Ichigo couldn't stand his dad most of the time. While there far more important reasons higher up on the list, right now he mentally berated his dad for the millionth time for insisting on keeping the entire Kurosaki clan on the same phone plan. Ichigo was constantly getting calls from people looking for his dad because they had pressed the last number incorrectly.

That would have been slightly more okay for Ichigo to take if it were not for two facts: 1) Isshin's last digit was '9' and Ichigo's was '8' 2) Isshin distributed business cards with script that was so swirly, twirly, fancy most people couldn't tell that the last number was a 9 and not an 8 and no matter how many times Ichigo complained, Isshin positively REFUSED to get new business cards with a more reasonable script.

Just as Ichigo was about to hang up, the voice asked hastily, "Did Mr. Kurosaki move recently? Do you know where I might be able to contact him?"

Trying to keep his irritation level down, Ichigo answered as patiently as he could, "Dr. Kurosaki has never lived here. He still runs the same clinic over on Karakura Street. Same place it's always been."

"Oh, I see," said the voice in confusion until after a moment's hesitation there was another gasp and a small laugh as the voice said, "I'm not looking for a Dr. Kurosaki. The person I wish to speak to is Mr. Ichigo Kurosaki."

"Then that would be me," said Ichigo automatically before he frowned and scratched his head and asked, "If you were looking for me, why'd you call me…" then he stopped as he recalled whom the voice had asked for before he gave out a short chuckle of his own as he said, "No one's called me 'Mr. Kurosaki' since high school."

Another chuckle from the man (Ichigo was fairly certain he was speaking to a man) before he said, "I see. Well, now that we have that straightened out, I'm hoping we can talk business."

"Fire away," said Ichigo quickly as he stifled a yawn.

Apparently, the guy on the other end had extremely good hearing as he said, "I'll try not to keep you long. It's very easy to forget sometimes that most people aren't awake at the same time I am."

So, the guy was a vampire. Now the late hour phone call made sense. He almost wanted to thump himself on the head for being so dense. Not like he hadn't worked for that species before or anything.

"I'm good to talk business," replied Ichigo, "Who's the target, who're the bumpers and how long do you want my services?"

There was a pause on the other end of the line which Ichigo was quite used to so he translated automatically, "Who do you want me to protect and whom do you want them protected from?"

"Oh, I see," said the man in obvious relief, "I'm looking for someone to protect my younger sister. I can't really answer your second question until I know if you'll take the job or not and even then I need to talk to you in person rather than over the phone. And lastly, I'm not sure how long my sister and I will be in need of your services. Perhaps a few days, perhaps longer."

Scratching the back of his head, Ichigo said, "I see."

Seeming to hear something in Ichigo's tone, the man hastened to say, "If you are at all worried about your salary, I can assure you that I am aware of your going rates right now and I can promise you that I will pay that in full on your first day and if we require you longer than a week, you will make double that every week you are employed with me."

Ichigo's eyebrows shot above his hairline. While his services didn't come cheap, no one had ever complained of Ichigo Kurosaki overcharging. He was one of the best at what he did, but he had heard more than once that the main reason he was hired was because of his affordable rates.

Despite the fact that more than half of him wanted to jump on the man's offer right away, his intuition told him to be cautious. This guy seemed nice enough over the phone, but Ichigo had dealt with plenty of those kind. From what Ichigo could guess from his voice, the guy seemed like he was on the up and up, but there was definitely something he was holding back.

Once again getting nervous at Ichigo's silence, the man said, "I have an idea. What if tomorrow night you come out to my home and I can give you a few more details? I'd be more than happy to pay you a day's wages for your time even if you don't accept my offer."

Rubbing his eyes again, Ichigo said, "Give me the time and place and I'll be there."

As he wrote down the address and name of the man, Ichigo thought to himself, "What can it hurt?"

What indeed…

The following evening, Ichigo found himself standing in front of a good sized mansion. A good number of his former clients had been quite well-to-do, but he definitely thought that this family was a cut above the others. They didn't feel the need to garishly flaunt their wealth to the entire world. Everything was tastefully done on the outside with the gardens being well attended too and the house being made of white marble with forest green shutters.

Pressing the buzzer for the intercom, Ichigo waited a few seconds before what Ichigo could only describe as a 'proper butler' intoned, "Yes?"

"Ichigo Kurosaki here by appointment," replied Ichigo.

"One moment, please," said the low voice and Ichigo heard the intercom click off.

He stood there about fifteen seconds before the butler clicked the button again and said, "The front gate is now unlocked. Please close the gate behind you as you come up."

Ichigo pressed the button and replied, "Will do," before he followed the butler's instructions.

The walk to the front door was longer than he had thought it might be (he had been half-tempted to cut across the lawn and save himself a few steps, but previous experience had taught him not to risk trampling on other peoples' grass), but his long strides soon were carrying him up the front steps. Just as he reached the top step, the front door opened and Ichigo saw that his previous assessment was accurate. The man standing before him could not be anything but a butler and he held himself with great dignity and took pride in his work.

Opening the door fully, the butler inclined his head as Ichigo stepped over the threshold before he asked, "May I take your coat, sir?"

"Yes please," said Ichigo after a moment's hesitation as he reminded himself not to use the slang 'Yeah'. While the butler's gaze was not hostile in any way, Ichigo really didn't want those icy blue eyes to flash with superiority over him when Ichigo didn't show proper decorum.

Taking the proffered garment, the butler turned to hang it on a coat rack, before looking back at Ichigo and saying, "This way, please," and leading Ichigo across a huge foyer to a flight of stairs. They turned left at the top and Ichigo counted about ten doors before the butler finally stopped at one on the left side.

Rapping on the door, the butler waited until he heard, "Yes?" before saying, "Mr. Ichigo Kurosaki is here, sir."

There was no initial reply, but a few moments later, Ichigo heard footsteps approaching the door and then saw it open.

A man in his early to mid-thirties had opened the door. His hair was a shade or two darker than Ichigo's own chocolate brown eyes while his eyes were gray as steel. However, the man's face was anything but stern and a huge smile spread across his face as he held out his hand for Ichigo to take.

"Thank you so much for agreeing to come out here on such short notice," said the man as he gave Ichigo's hand a good shake, "Did you have any trouble finding it?"

Returning the man's friendly handshake, Ichigo replied with a half-grin, "Not at all. Your directions were quite clear and thorough, Mr. Inoue."

"That's good to hear," he replied, "But please, call me Sora."

"As you please."

Sora grinned at Ichigo before looking at the butler and instructing him, "Byakuya, if you would please inform Hisana that she can finish those preparations on the refreshments as soon as possible and then find my sister and tell her to come and see me in about fifteen minutes time, I think Ichigo and I will have just enough time to discuss some important matters before we require anything else."

"Very good, sir," said Byakuya with a respectful bow.

"Oh, hold on a moment," said Sora suddenly before looking at Ichigo, "Do you have any dietary preferences or restrictions? I'm sorry I didn't think to ask you before now, but it quite slipped my mind as we usually only have to entertain other vampires."

Shaking his head, Ichigo said, "No worries. My diet is only really affected the day before, during and after the full moon and even then I could have the same kind of food as vampires. We werewolves aren't extremely picky about sustenance."

Letting out a sigh, Sora said, "Well that's a relief then," then turned back to Byakuya and said, "I'll ring if we need anything else."

"Very good, sir," repeated Byakuya before he retreated back down the hall.

Drawing back to allow Ichigo to enter, Sora said, "Come on in and make yourself comfortable."

Ichigo glanced briefly at the room as he walked over and settled himself into an overstuffed leather armchair in front of a large desk, where Sora seated himself. The room was obviously a kind of study combined with a library from the various shelves stocked with books while the other shelves were stocked with office supplies. It was sparsely decorated, but just like the outside, the things in the room were quality.

Leaning his elbows upon the desk, Sora said, "I assume you have worked for my kind before."

Ichigo nodded as he replied, "I've worked for the Li, Kinomoto, Ashura, Yasha and Shirou covens."

Sora's eyebrows rose as he said in an impressed tone, "That is some impressive work," then he frowned slightly as he asked, "If you don't mind my asking…"

As Sora's voice trailed off in embarrassment, Ichigo supplied an answer by simply saying, "I'm twenty-four. I officially hired myself out as part of a business when I was nineteen, but I began working as a bodyguard at seventeen."

"I see," Sora nodded in understanding and admiration as he said, "So it's no wonder I was told you are the best person to hire in your line of business."

While Ichigo didn't reply, he couldn't help a surge of pride as he said, "You can be the judge of whether or not I can handle the job."

Grinning in a knowing way, Sora said, "Yes, let's talk business now."

Sora cleared his throat and Ichigo was rather surprised when the congenial light left Sora's gray eyes. He had become completely serious and Ichigo knew that whatever job Sora was about to propose, it was something he was greatly concerned about.

"I mentioned over the phone that I am looking for someone to protect my sister," Sora pressed his fingertips together in front of his mouth as he said, "but the reasons I am looking for protection for her are numerous and unclear."

"What do you mean by that?" inquired Ichigo.

"There is not a specific coven or pack or gang right now who are targeting my sister," answered Sora, "however, I have reason to believe that within a week, that will all change."

"How so?" Ichigo prompted when Sora paused for a time.

Raising his eyes to look directly into Ichigo's, Sora said, "My sister will turn twenty-two next week and I have reason to believe that she will undergo some sort of change that will put her life in jeopardy."

Quirking an eyebrow in surprise, Ichigo thought for a few moments before he asked, "Is she an adopted human or different species from yourself?"

Chuckling drily at Ichigo's question, Sora said, "No, my sister is technically a vampire."

Noticing Sora's choice of words, Ichigo's eyebrows lowered in confusion as he probed, "What do you mean?"

Thinking for a few moments, Sora took a long breath before he replied, "I'm going to do my best not to bog you down with details, but there is a bit of backstory that I need to give so that I can explain what I meant in my last statement."

Sitting back and opening a drawer in his desk, Sora quickly retrieved a leather bound book and handed it over to Ichigo. When he opened the cover, Ichigo saw that it was a photo album.

Pointing to the first photo which was of a bride and groom looking stoically at the camera Sora said, "My mother and father," he paused a moment and took a deep breath before he said hastily, "Yhwach and Tia Hallibel."

Ichigo's gaze snapped up to meet Sora's as the man said, "You heard me correctly," he glared at the photo as he said contemptuously, "My parents were 'Lord and Lady Crimson'. I assume you've heard of them."

Opening and closing his mouth several times as he tried to piece together an appropriate response, Ichigo finally said lamely, "Yeah, I have."

Sora chuckled humorlessly as he replied, "Of course you have. I doubt there is anyone from your generation who hasn't at least heard some rumors about the massacre."

Ichigo drew a deep breath before he said, "My dad was called in to try and help those still clinging to life."

Sora's eyes snapped up and Ichigo was startled by the look of horror in his face as he asked, "What do you mean? Are you saying that some of those poor people…"

As the blood drained from Sora's face, Ichigo said quickly, "Yes, some of them lived an hour or two longer, but they were all comatose. They never woke up and slipped away peacefully."

Dropping back into his chair, Sora draped a hand over his eyes and said nothing for a time. It was Ichigo's policy not to know any more about his client's background than was absolutely necessary. While a voice in the back of his mind was insisting that he tell Sora to only give him the bare facts and nothing more, Ichigo couldn't help but respect Sora a little more for owning up to his parentage. Even more than that, Ichigo respected his remorse and disgust towards the brutal acts of his infamous parents. Ichigo couldn't think of any other vampires he'd worked for who had nearly as much moral fiber.

Coming out from his daze, Sora lifted his hand to look at Ichigo as he said, "I apologize for my reaction and for taking up more of our time."

Before Ichigo had a chance to respond, Sora went on, "It shouldn't come as a surprise to you that I made a decision to estrange myself and my sister from our parents. A distant aunt allowed us to come and live with her and we took on her family name."

Leaning forward again, Sora said, "To be perfectly honest, though, before the 'Bloody Moon' as it is now called, I had already begun making plans to cut ties with the Hallibel coven."

"Why?" asked Ichigo automatically in slight confusion. The Hallibel coven had one of the longest lineages and so therefore were very powerful and wealthy. There were only two covens who officially outranked them, yet they were the only coven in this part of the world, so that made them all the more influential.

Another brief pause before Sora seemed to make up his mind and he said, "Because of my sister. Either my parents would have killed or exploited her if I had not run away with her."

Before Ichigo could pose the question, Sora answered it by saying, "My sister is not a normal vampire."

"How so?" Ichigo prompted when Sora paused.

"Where to start," sighed Sora, "Well, she has only ever bitten four people in her life and two of those times she was forced to do so by my parents simply so that they could confirm that she was a legitimate vampire."

At Ichigo's confused frown, Sora explained further, "Orihime detests the taste of blood, especially human. However, she will eat cooked meats and other things like a normal human, which is one reason my parents had to prove to the other members of the coven that Orihime was a vampire by having her bite someone."

"Okay," said Ichigo slowly before he asked, "What about the other two times? What happened there?"

Right away, Ichigo could tell that Sora hadn't expected him to pick up on that little detail. Briefly, Ichigo wondered to himself why Sora would be so surprised. It was Ichigo's job to notice the little details that no one else deemed important.

Sora cleared his throat and he said hastily, "Well, that's a little more complicated to explain, so let's just say that…" his brain seemed to grasp desperately for some answer and he finally blurted, "Let's just say that she felt like it."

"Excuse me?" said Ichigo flatly, "I thought you just said that he hated the taste of human blood."

"She didn't bite them for sustenance," replied Sora quickly, "She just did it because…well, because she said they were unhappy."

"Right," said Ichigo in a slow, sarcastic tone, "And a vampire who bites someone because they look unhappy and not because they are hungry is totally normal."

Before Sora could say anything else, Ichigo asked, "Just come out and say if your sister is weak-minded or something. This is the twenty-first century after all where a wide variety of mental illnesses are perfectly normal and totally acceptable as well and treatable."

Instead of taking offense, Sora sighed and said, "While you will soon find out that my sister is a very imaginative person, especially for someone her age, that doesn't make her certifiably crazy. She is…quirky. Nothing more."

"I would hardly describe biting two depressed people in an attempt to make them feel better as 'quirky'," Ichigo said along with air quotes, "And by the way, did her biting them really make them happy."

Looking Ichigo dead in the eye, Sora said flatly, "Yes, it did."

"What?"

"After they were bitten, both humans fell asleep for a few seconds. When they woke up, both showed no signs of remembering my sister's biting them and went about their business as happy now as they were unhappy before."

Ichigo absorbed that information for a while before he asked, "How is that possible?"

"I'm not sure," Sora said honestly, "I don't dare take her to any doctor since there are none I truly trust. On my own, I have tried to research and see if any other vampire has been the same as my sister, but it seems to me as if she is the only one of her kind."

Sitting back and mulling for a moment, Ichigo asked slowly, "Any other…" he paused to try and come up with the right word, "special abilities to watch out for?"

Before Sora could respond, there was a knock on the door and Sora said, "Yes, come in."

As the door opened, Ichigo turned and saw Byakuya enter the room with a tray and followed closely by a young woman Ichigo could only guess was the…'unique' vampire, Orihime. Had he not just talked with Sora about the fact that she was a vampire, nothing of what Ichigo saw would have led him to believe she was anything else, but now he scrutinized her closely.

Orihime's skin was pale, nothing unusual there. She was smiling as she entered the room, so Ichigo got a fairly good look at her pointed eye teeth which would elongate fractionally when she prepared to bit someone…apparently only someone who was feeling down in the dumps, but still needed for that purpose. The one thing Ichigo did notice and that gave him pause were her eyes. Normally vampires would have darker colored irises that would turn even darker when they were hungry or in a high state of emotion. Orihime, however, had eyes the color of tempered silver. Momentarily, Ichigo wondered what color they would turn if Orihime found another unhappy victim.

These thoughts passed quickly through his mind as he rose along with Sora as he said, "Ichigo, may I introduce you to my sister, Orihime? Orihime, this is Ichigo."

Extending her hand with a glowing smile, Orihime said sweetly, "Good evening."

Ichigo shook her hand gently as he replied with a nod, "Ma'am."

"Please Mr. Kurosaki," Orihime giggled, "call me Orihime."

Giving her a half grin, Ichigo nodded and said, "And I'm Ichigo."

A little more than an hour later, Ichigo was being escorted back to the front door by Byakuya, Sora and Orihime. Ichigo thanked Byakuya when the butler brought him his coat, shrugged into it and looked back at Sora and Orihime.

"I'll be here around six tomorrow evening," Ichigo said in full business-mode, "I realize that is probably early for you, but I'd like to take a thorough look at the grounds and any security you may or probably do not have. Will that be a problem?"

Sora shook his head and said, "Not at all. We'll be ready by six."

With a nod, Ichigo took his leave.

The following evening, Ichigo arrived at quarter after six. His knock was swiftly answered by the ever-polite yet completely aloof Byakuya.

After giving Byakuya his coat and baggage, Ichigo turned to see Sora standing half-way up the stairs as he waved and said, "Good to see you. Would you rather look at our security system first or tour the grounds?"

"Grounds first, then the inside of the house," Ichigo replied right away, "That way I can see what's already been done and if there's anything we need to add when we look at the camera footage."

"Very well," said Sora as he walked the rest of the way down the staircase, "Follow me, if you please."

Since he was focusing most of his attention on analyzing the grounds and going through various scenarios in his mind of what defenses there were would be if there was a security breach, Ichigo wasn't able to truly look around and appreciate the well cared for gardens and fountains giving the mansion a highly sophisticated look. However, he did briefly consider that he had been right in his first impression that everything was done in a subtle and tasteful manner when it came to decorating.

There were several varieties of flowers ranging from dahlias to gauras to wild daisies all in various colors. They were arranged so that there was constant change from darker shades to lighter or smaller flowers to larger ones, which created constant contrast on different levels so that one might think the arrangement was chaotic at first until one stepped back and took in the whole sight. Flowers, shrubs and trees were kept tidy and structured and yet expressed a freedom and uniqueness.

Other than escorting Ichigo from one end of the gardens to the other and answering a few questions here and there, Sora mostly hung back and allowed Ichigo to do his job. After a while, Byakuya also joined them to bring some warm beverages as summer was ending and the nights were becoming chillier. He was also another good source of information to answer Ichigo's inquiries.

At last, Ichigo turned and said, "Let's walk around the perimeter of the house, then take a look inside."

Another half hour passed outside before Ichigo was satisfied with his findings. He may not look it, but when it came to his work, Ichigo was a stickler for details. In the heat of the moment if his client were in danger, Ichigo acted mostly on instinct, but he had learned the hard way that when too many things were left to chance, usually others paid the price.

As the group walked through the door, they were greeted by Orihime and two other women. They were both nearly the same height and Ichigo might have said they were identical twins, but the slightly taller one had longer hair and Ichigo saw more defined laugh lines encircling her eyes.

Stepping forward, Sora said cordially, "This is Hisana," he indicated the older woman, "She is our chef extraordinaire, housekeeper and happily married to our faithful Byakuya."

Hisana gave a slight curtsey as she said, "Pleased to meet you."

Ichigo was about to reply when Sora went on, "And this is Rukia. Hisana's younger sister and Orihime's lady's maid."

"Ladies," Ichigo said simply with a polite nod to both before he looked at Orihime and said, "Good evening, Orihime."

While she had been smiling politely a moment previously, Orihime positively glowed as she replied, "Hello again, Ichigo."

Ichigo saw Rukia elbow Orihime in the side (apparently in what she thought was a subtle manner) and gave her a knowing look, but he chose to ignore them and turn to Sora and ask, "Start from the basement and work up from there?"

"Sounds good to me," replied Sora in what Ichigo thought might be a tone of relief as he stepped to the right and said, "Right this way."

As he followed behind Sora, he was pretty sure he heard Orihime ask, "What was that for Rukia?" but he wasn't sure and he really didn't care since he was once again focused on his job.

Author's Note:

I'm half in conflict over posting this new story...and the other one I'm going to start right afterwards, but I've found that if I keep suppressing ideas and stories like these, I never get around to them. Once I actually post them and I have people who are waiting on updates, I put pressure on myself to finish since I don't like coming across stories that I'm dying to finish and yet haven't been touched in over a year. Also, while I'm one of the biggest procrastinators around, given enough time, I'll finish my stories because in my mind the worst thing I could possibly do is leave something unfinished. Plenty of times I've been tempted to just give up on a project (I've deleted one or two of my stories because I just wasn't satisfied with them and was frankly embarrassed by them), but I just can't. I may not keep it around, but I wouldn't like the thought of unfinished work hanging over my head.

Anyway, this was a story I had tried to finish for a contest on dA with the OrangeCrush-Ichihime group, but 1) I ran out of time and 2) like you can see, it's no where near completion yet, so I decided to take things a bit further and publish in chapters.

For any of you who are curious, I did draw inspiration from the anime/manga Karin for Orihime's powers as a vampire. Other than that, I didn't ever finish the whole story of Karin, so I don't think I'm taking anything else from there, but if I do, then that will be completely by accident.

Hope you guys are somewhat intrigued by this and I will spend some good time trying to think of where this will go next.