"Agents Ratekin and Jokinen." Dean lied with ease. "What do we got here, Mr... Uh..."
The man in front of them was... unusual, to say the least. Golden eyes - like Azazel - long, white hair despite barely looking 25, and red eyeliner on his upper eyelids only. His facial structure was mildly feminine, with Asian features and skin paler than porcelain. His bangs parted evenly over his forehead, though that appeared to be the only thing he paid attention to with his hair.
"Sesshomaru Achilles." Answered the detective. "Pretty weird case, this one."
Sam gave a small smile. "That's why the FBI is here, Detective."
Clapping his hands together, Sesshomaru stepped forward. "Alright then. So!" He made a broad gesture to the crosswalk. "A man was witnessed running into the street out of jackshit nowhere here. I know this street pretty damn well - my sister and I go here all the time - so I know there's very good visibility from where he would have been. He obviously did see the car."
Golden boy's blase attitude set off all of the remaining warning bells in Dean's head. "So why'd he run out to the middle of the road?" The hunter asked.
"By witness accounts, our killer was on some kind of drugs. She's on the second floor up in the building on the right- saw the whole thing. Mrs. Callahan was already about to call an ambulance when she saw the vic' run into this street lamp." Clarified Sesshomaru as he indicated a lamp bent around the front of a wrecked Forester. The Winchesters followed him around the busted car. Upon the cement lied a gruesome cadaver, half torn to ribbons.
"His throat looks... gnawed out." Noted Sam with disgust as he knelt beside the corpse.
Dean scowled. "Looks like our killer is on something pretty bad."
Backing up, Detective Achilles intoned, "I'll leave you two here. If crazy was my deal, I'd be working psychology in a mental hospital like my brother."
Sesshomaru knew the two "FBI agents" had followed him, but he honestly didn't care. They smelled like hunters - something he had no problem fighting.
He didn't know what he expected when he opened the door to his apartment - vampires, like the one he could smell at the scene? More hunters, maybe? - but Rin painting in the living room wasn't quite it. He stared at her for a moment as she swirled crimson paint onto her brush, moving it downward as she slowly painted in the tips of a golden-red rose Inuyasha drew.
He took a moment to marvel at how much his adopted sister had changed in the 508 years since they met. Gone was the little girl in the checkered kimono- Rin was 5'2", in scribbled-on jeans and a once gray shirt now sporting a spattering of paint in every color. Although immortal, she'd stopped aging at 16, making her cigarette addiction from the 1800s a surefire thing of the past. Her spiky black hair was pulled back in a low ponytail, though it kept falling out.
"Sessh, what's wrong?" She asked suddenly, her voice shaking him from his reverie. "You're looking at me like I have three new arms."
Shaking his head, the demon smiled at her gently. "It's nothing to worry about. I'm just going to call Yasha really quick- we should expect visitors tonight."
Inuyasha pulled his car to the curb, musing about how lucky his siblings were that he was so adept at magic. They probably didn't even have to fight the hunters in the awesome car, perched across the street from their apartment complex. He was a bit curious about how they knew which apartment was theirs to be honest.
Time to find out.
Holding his hand out (beneath the dashboard, of course - hunters always think magic is deadly, even the harmless spells, so them seeing him holding a clawed hand out would go poorly) he whispered, "laever ruoy snoitentni!"
Instantaneous information flooded his mind. Sam and Dean Winchester. Hunters. Brothers. Vampire case. Sesshomaru is a suspect. Investigating the apartment at 10:30 PM.
Having learned all he needed, the hanyou retracted his spell and slipped out of his car.
'This should be fun.' He thought, suppressing a smirk.
"Hey." Sam said, poking Dean in the rib. "Check out that guy."
Dean removed his attention from the window which had the mailbox labeled Achilles. Sesshomaru- along with a dark-haired teenager who must have been the sister he mentioned- lived on the 23rd floor.
Hence, binoculars. Old, dirty binoculars. Binoculars that left him with raccoon eyes.
"What guy? Dean asked as he scrubbed the black rings from his face.
Sam waited for his brother's attention, then pointed him out. The man - 22 at most - had the same golden eyes and white hair as Sesshomaru, with darker skin. He wore black jeans and a dark red t-shirt, with a black vest over it. His brown-with-red-laces boots seemed to have stains that were either dried mud or blood.
Dean's money was on the latter.
"I think we got the nest, Sammy." The older brother hissed. "Just a few more hours and we'll gank these mothers."
/ Slowly, silently, the Winchesters crept up the stairs.
When they finally reached room 221A, Sam knelt to pick the lock silently. Dean was fully expecting to be there for 5 minutes, so it shocked him when the door just creaked open. It had been unlocked...
Almost like an invitation in.
The two brothers were greeted by the girl, who hadn't bothered to change from her painting clothes. When she saw Sam and Dean, her brown eyes shone- not with fear, but with amusement.
"Boys." She greeted, flippantly tossing her Mp3 to the coffee table in front of the sofa she was lounging on.
Dean kept his gun trained on her. Sam proceeded to the rest of the house, searching for blood bags or the small child who had disappeared.
"Ooh, is that a 1911 Browning? Personally I prefer the Colt Anaconda, they literally give you more bang for your-" The girl babbled, interrupted by Dean clicking off the safety on his aforementioned pistol. "Okay, no girl-talk. Damn, you're touchy..."
All Sam was able to find was a small jar of blood and a syringe loaded with the stuff. "Nothing else, but this is-"
"Dead-man's blood. Vamp knockout juice. Yeah." The painter confirmed. "We're hunting the vampires too. I'm Rin Achilles. You're the Winchesters, I know."
Dean blinked in utter confusion. "Hold the fuck up, you're hunters?"
Rin shook her head, giving a rather condescending smile. "A demon, a half-demon, and an immortal priestess actually. We hunt whatever endangers us. We're pretty good, but we do have to move a lot. My brothers sniffed out the nest earlier- Sessh flew them out a window- so I'll tell you where they are so I can pack our shit. The crossing of Belmont and Hawthorne, red and white building. Have fun."
Inuyasha stepped into the building, and all eyes immediately centered on him.
Living. Breathing. Almost-human blood. Food. Recruit him. Make him ours.
That's all vampires truly care about.
At least, until you cut one of their friend's heads off.
The hanyou boredly flicked the blood from his claws as the vampire who had first moved to eat him fell before his feet, dead. Indignant, furious roars tore throughout the room. An older man launched at Inuyasha, not even reaching the fall of his jump's arc before Sesshomaru stepped forth and snapped his neck like it was a twig.
(Given the fact that he was a full-blooded demon, to him it was less than even that.)
A butcher's knife was thrown at Inuyasha's head at speeds that a human eye likely couldn't even track. Given that he wasn't human, the middle Achilles sibling caught it and promptly cut a gothic teen in half. A sparkle to his left caught his eye- someone was trying to sneak up on him with a weapon whilst Sesshomaru was distracted by his 5 assailants.
"Trevnoc elcsum otni yrettab dica." The hanyou snarled, smirking when he heard a burning sizzle from his left. Gruesome deaths always left an impression.
Sesshomaru ripped his fully extended claws into the chest of his final vampiric opponent, tearing outward from the inside seam of his lungs. It was good that he had left his denim jacket at home- now his stonewashed jeans, navy-blue shirt, and black sneakers were the only things getting spattered with vampire blood.
"Fuck, I got some in my eye." Inuyasha complained, taking time to scrub blood from his eyes as he set another few on fire. Before they started slashing, 35 vampires had been in the room. Now only two remained, huddling anxiously in the corner
The demon chuckled darkly, walking toward the two bloodsuckers. "Are you two going to tell me where the little human boy is?"
"B-b-bi-Bite me!" Stammered the boy, shrinking into the taller woman next to him when golden eyes sent him a promising glare.
"If you want." The taiyoukai snarled, showing his fangs and purposefully letting some of his natural toxins drip from one and burn the floor. "You'll dissolve, but if that's what you'd like, I'm more than happy to oblige."
A small squeak passed the lips of both vampires.
Inuyasha stepped forward, revealing his own fangs in a hollow smile. "Here's the deal; tell us where the kid is, or we'll make you."
"As if." The woman scoffed in some masquerade of bravery. She appeared to be 30, but with vampires you could never really tell.
Sesshomaru drove his claws through her arm calmly. As she wailed in pain, he noted, "I don't think we need to explain more."
"...Go. Burn." She spat.
"What's that?" Questioned the demon. He twisted his wrist slightly, and she wailed as his claws dragged through her muscle tissue.
"Fine!" She screeched. "He's... Secret chamber- don't know how to enter, no one tells me- he's... food for the fledglings. One of them got out and she's the one who ripped out that kine's throat, okay? Stop!"
Sesshomaru removed his claws with the calm of a practised professional. "Of course. Thank you."
Inuyasha placed his hand on her wound gently, murmuring a quick reparative spell. "You two can leave as long as you swear not to kill any innocents."
The two nodded, absconding with repetitive thanks.
Sharing a meaningful glance, the brothers started ripping the place apart in search of the little kid.
When the Winchesters arrived at the building, a massacre had already come and gone.
Piles of thinly-shredded vampire corpses littered the floor all around them. Some were in bloodied heaps of scrap and bone, others had deep gashes arcing across their chests. A few appeared to have been burnt by acid, fire, or both.
In the center of this gory mess, Sesshomaru and the other guy - the one who had convinced them though sheer appearance that they found the vamp nest - were clearly searching for something... or someone.
Finally, they discovered a switch that opened a tiny trap door cleverly concealed in a corner. Sesshomaru dropped in without hesitation, though the other briefly stopped.
"Hi." He said bluntly. "I'm Doctor Inuyasha Achilles. No, I'm not a medical doctor. Yes, I'm half-demon. I'm also a witch. 'Kay, thanks, bye!"
With that, he hopped down through the trap-door.
"The city looks so pretty," Rin sang. "Do you wanna burn it with me, 'till the skies bleed ashes-"
The priestess froze mid-jam session, eye catching on something in the upper right corner of the apartment wall. Something silver and shiny, blending almost perfectly with the gray lining of the crimson wallpaper.
Almost.
A bug was not the best thing to have in their apartment. Depending on when it had been placed, the itty-bitty camera could have seen through her brothers' glamours- exposing them as magic-using demons.
(Inuyasha being a half-demon, but that wasn't the point.)
Slowly, Rin lifted her bag and dropped her MP3 in. She carefully freed a dagger from its confines, knowing what was probably coming next.
From the apartment beside her, a muffled scream sounded and was followed by a sickening rrrrrrrip!
Rin scowled. She hated it when vampires killed her neighbors, as it was a definite sign that they had to move.
Again.
Luckily, they had done this whole kill-monsters-then-get-the-hell-out routine enough that she had already packed both of her brothers' and her own suitcases.
They hadn't moved enough for Rin to anticipate the door crashing down.
In the smashed doorway stood three vampires. She could tell by the animalistic expression on the faces of the couple who lived down the hall that they were fledglings. However, Eleanor from right next door for six fucking months seemed triumphant as well as hungry.
"I knew there was something strange about the incense you always burn." Rin announced. Eleanor smirked triumphantly, her elderly-looking face looking more distorted than normal- and considering how her paper-white skin always contrasted with her dyed blonde hair and bloodshot eyes, that was saying something.
A move of the old vampiress' hand had the two fledglings charging Rin without discretion. The woman was slightly faster than her boyfriend, prompting her to run throat-first into the waiting silver-and-hawthorn dagger. Upon seeing it, Eleanor shouted for her new recruit to retreat; driven by vengeance and bloodlust, he either didn't hear or didn't care.
Roaring, he charged her with blind strikes. Rin dodged almost all of his strikes with ease- only a few skimmed her.
She kept dodging, moving, weaving, even as her assailant tired. Maneuvering around the exhausted and weak punches, she let him continue until...
Slash!
The priestess stopped playing with her prey. Maybe the giant slash across his chest would teach him not to play his devastatingly awful 60's music so loud.
Scraps of life clung desperately to the vampire, even as he bled out. He crumpled slowly to his knees, red eyes losing light gradually. Rin had no patience for it; the priestess kicked him into the coffee table without a hint of hesitation.
"You're just as bad as those delinquent brothers of yours!" Roared Eleanor, who looked rather hysterical. "They destroyed my nest, and I will avenge-"
The vampiress was cut off by the ever-interrupting sensation of a knife piercing her throat. Rin gave her convincingly-innocent, 'who, me?', heart-melting smile- at odds with her hatred-filled eyes.
"Shut the fuck up, alright?" The immortal crooned. "Thank you."
A choked gargle, and then the third vampire slumped to the floor.
Rin was about to sit back on the couch and celebrate with some more Hollywood Undead when the sight of blood on her hands made her pause.
She rushed to the bathroom, cursing creatively when she saw her clothes were awash in red. Maybe she should have stayed in her painter's outfit after all- her white tank top was now mostly crimson, and her jeans had rips from the attacks she hadn't quite dodged. The hems had bloodstains, too - from stepping in little puddles formed by dying vampires- and her feet felt unusually squishy.
Ew.
"Rin! We trashed the nest, did you get our- ho-lee..." Inuyasha never ceased to have good timing.
The youngest of the siblings shot him a deadpan glare. "Now can we leave?"
Throwing his pack over his shoulder, then throwing Rin hers, the hanyou nodded. Sesshomaru sprinted in at the right time to catch his bag. "When we dropped the kid at the precinct, they got the "Public disturbance" call around here. I can hear the sirens. Let's go."
Swearing, Rin grabbed Sesshomaru's gun from the holster and shot the tiny camera. "I can hear 'em too, and we're on the 23rd floor!"
She tossed her brother his firearm, then they took off for the elevator. Inuyasha slapped the down button, and the three of them held very still.
Five seconds ticked by. Maybe five minutes. Could have been hours. Immortality made tracking time annoying.
"I don't hear the elevator." Her brothers chorused.
When the middle sibling ripped the elevator door open, they saw something that shouldn't have been shocking. The cord was severed, dangling uselessly.
Inuyasha shook his head, maintaining calm over his anger. "Alright. I have a glamour spell, I can switch their appearances with ours for a while. Desiugsid morf enik!"
A rippling sensation passed over Rin's skin, then the glamour settled into place. Normal people couldn't see their true appearances like this - only those who knew of the existence of the supernatural.
For all intents and purposes, they were living, blood-free versions of the dead vampires. Even their fingerprints matched.
On the floor beneath them, the vampires had a bright shine to their skin. This indicated the fact that they were under the effects of a glamour as well- although this one was permanent. To the naked human eye, they appeared to be Inuyasha, Sesshomaru and Rin.
Their cadavers, to be precise.
With the spell-work accomplished, they bolted for the stairs.
23. Stories. High.
Oh, and to make their day even more amazing, the SWAT team was already 15 floors up.
Sesshomaru swore creatively all through their descent. Finally, they came face to face with the officers. The priestess recognised the strain in her brother's brow- he knew some of these people personally.
"Put your hands behind your head!" One of the men barked, waving his Uzi in a threatening manner. "On the floor! Now!"
"But they're stairs, what do I do?" Rin asked sweetly. She really hoped Inuyasha had the sense not to make her Eleanor. She did not want to get sassy with an officer as a 60-year-old.
"On. The. Floor."
She pouted, raising her hands in surrender.
Sesshomaru and Inuyasha followed suit, but as soon as the hanyou's hands were level with his head, he shouted "Og ot peels!"
Simultaneously, every officer on the SWAT team collapsed. Some were snoring, others drooling.
The taiyoukai turned to Inuyasha, eyebrow raised. "You got peels?"
"Shut up and run while they're asleep, fuckhead."
Dean still didn't know why they had agreed to wait for the Achilles family.
Sure, they had saved a kid and ganked thirty-something vampires. Of course, they were centuries old and knew the world and its monsters better than possibly even Cas. Yeah, a psychologist, a detective, and an immortal teenage priestess would be helpful with hunting.
That didn't mean he had to like waiting when there were cops right fucking there.
When Rin peeked out of the complex's glass door cautiously, he braced himself for all hell to break loose- surely, the two officers would notice how she was drenched in blood.
They didn't even flinch.
Blinking, Dean couldn't help but grudgingly marvel at Inuyasha's magical appeared to be asking for permission to leave; when one officer attempted to refuse, the hanyou barely had to twitch to make him change his mind.
As the officers began arguing, the siblings hurried over to - and promptly hopped in the back seat of the Impala.
"... Can't hold the glamour charm much longer." Inuyasha warned, face pale. Now that Dean got a good look at the three of them, he noticed a sort of starry quality to their skin. "Won' work on you, cause you know about magic n' stuff."
Dean nodded. "Alright, let's roll."
He started the car, and very inconspicuously started to drive away.
They reached a hotel pretty quickly, though Rin and Inuyasha had to stay in the car- the priestess because she was soaked in blood and didn't know how to place a glamour upon herself, and the witch because he was apparently very cranky when he just woke up.
Cranky meaning setting everything on fire.
A small television set pinned to the ceiling revealed a hunt on three people's heads for the presumed murder of Inuyasha, Rin, and Sesshomaru. The fact that they had apparently taken out an entire SWAT team with "knockout gas" didn't help their cases.
Sesshomaru turned to him, mouthing 'vampires' to explain the reality of the situation as the newscaster went on about a possible terrorist organization. Dean gave an understanding nod, then gave the receptionist his (fake) credit card.
"Terrible." He noted - Dean saw that his name tag read "James" - before scanning the card. "Who would butcher a little family like that?"
Sam shook his head, shrugging. "Psychopaths?"
James squinted at Sesshomaru as he gave Dean back his card. He had a seperate glamour on now, provided by Rin - who wasn't very good at magic. The illusion barely held under his scrutiny.
Giving a polite wave, the youkai dragged Sam and Dean out.
Sesshomaru carried Inuyasha carefully, making sure that he didn't wake his brother. The last time that had happened...Well, remembering made him shudder.
"So," Sam began as soon as the door shut. "You're a demon? Who are you possessing?"
Giving an irritated sigh, the older man set his brother on one of the beds. Dean and Rin got one room - he could hear them avidly discussing rock bands from here - and the three of them got the other. "I'm not one of those kemuri no nisemono you're used to dealing with. I'm a inu-taiyoukai. A Japanese dog demon, one of the most powerful in existence."
Sam looked thoughtful for a moment before asking his question. "In that case, how do I know I can trust you?"
"You don't, I suppose." Answered the silverette, though it wasn't really an answer at all. "Although, you smell like you've had dealings with fakers before... Just know that we have emotions. Almost all of them are psychopaths; youkai have an emotional spectrum that surpasses a human's by far."
The younger Winchester brother sat down across from Sesshomaru, gazing at him seriously. "Almost all?" He asked slowly. Even from that distance, the taiyoukai could see him mulling that over.
"Well, they wouldn't be a species worth a name if they didn't vary a bit." Sesshomaru noted flippantly. "Keep this in mind, Sam; not all cats are nice, not all demons are sick sons of bitches. Any more questions?"