It was her turn to be the vampire bait.
For the very first time, sixteen-year-old Maka Albarn had drawn the short end of the stick and was given the resentful task of luring in the vampires. She'd wanted to groan, complain, and switch her way out of it, but it wasn't any use. None of her teammates were insane enough to take attracting the bloodsuckers over staking them.
Seeing as she wouldn't have switched either, Maka had no choice but to swallow her complaints.
"You look like you're having fun," her best friend, Liz, said from behind her, tongue in cheek. She was sitting on the edge of Maka's bed as the tiny blonde got ready for the stakeout, looking both proud and excited. Luckily her job only required her to be able to blend into the shadows. All Liz had to do was slip on some dark clothes and throw her light brown locks into a ponytail.
Unlike Maka. Clipping a final diamond barrette into her ashy blond hair, she said, "If I'm being used as bait, I might as well have fun dressing up, right?"
"That's my girl," Liz approved. "You look like a true whore. Very well done."
Maka flicked a makeup brush at her friend, but she couldn't help the beam of excitement from shining through. "It's not like I can be good vamp bait in jeans and a T-shirt," she said pointedly.
"Hey, don't diss jeans! Jeans are awesome." Liz gestured to her own denim-clad legs for emphasis. "Besides, you lured your own boyfriend in these, so don't complain."
Cringing, Maka suddenly bore the weight of the only thing that could crush her pre-mission buzz. Her boyfriend was already against the idea of her being the decoy for this mission, but there wasn't anyone else more equipped for the job. Liz was still bearing visible wounds from her last mission, meaning couldn't pull off the skin-baring outfit required to be bait. And none of the guys could—nor would, nor should ever—do it.
Still... Seeing Maka dress up like a first class prostitute? Not exactly a point in her favor.
"Kid is going to hate me even more for this."
Liz snorted. "Are you kidding? Kid won't be able to keep his hands off you in that outfit. He's just going to have to remember that he can't touch you until the vampire does." She winked at her companion conspiratorially, and Maka narrowed her big green eyes.
"You're enjoying this," she accused.
"Who, me?" Liz's voice was innocent but her twinkling eyes gave her away.
"You know, you should be thanking me," Maka said conversationally, turning to raise her eyebrows at her friend. "I play bait so you can go back to your mysterious boyfriend, who I have yet to meet, without being tainted by vampire touches. Does that earn me a favor?"
The brunette hid a smile at Maka's not-so-discreet prod for information. "I told you: he's just some guy I've known my whole life. It's nothing serious."
"But it's weird that I've never met him before!" she persisted. "You don't even want me to meet him so I can help you judge every little thing he does? I've always wanted to play the overprotective father type." Maka paused. "Maybe I can give him a lecture about sex to make it as awkward as possible."
Liz laughed out loud. "And I would love you forever if you did. But tonight isn't about me and my secret love life or even you and your challenged romance—it's about you and your escapades as bait!"
"Wow, Liz. You're making this sound so much better."
Pursing her lips, Maka studied her short skirt and lacy, half-sleeved, navy blue corset again and tried to see more than an escort. The outfit—if it could even pass as that—hugged her petite frame complementally, but it showed off more than a decent amount of skin while masking the scars on her back she couldn't hide. In all honesty, she wasn't even sure if her teachers would approve, and the Gorgon Academy instructors were known for praising anything that brought in dead vampires.
"Maybe I should change."
"Oh, come on, Maka," she exclaimed. "I was just kidding! You look gorgeous. Besides, the boys are already waiting for us in Pearl." Pearl was what Liz had bizarrely named their black vehicle. The boys did not approve but what could they do, tape her mouth shut? If that had been an option with Elizabeth Thompson, many people would have done that a long time ago.
Maka forced a smile. "I'm ready."
"You don't have to be nervous, babe."
"I'm not nervous."
Liz grinned slightly. "We're going to have to work on your lying skills before we get to the bar because that was terrible."
Grimacing, she said, "Sorry."
"Don't be." Liz brushed the blonde's hair back, just like an older sister would do to a younger sibling. "I was nervous on my first hunt too. What?" she said indignantly at Maka's snort. "I was. But just remember that whatever you do has to be for the mission and we'll have your back no matter what, okay?" She straightened abruptly, officially ending the surprising pep talk. "Come on; let's go before the guys decide to leave without us."
"As if they can. That's like going fishing without worms."
"You think Kid and Harvar aren't hot enough to turn a few straight vampires on their own?" Liz raised her eyebrows in mock-surprise.
Maka laughed. "I think Kid can kick ass better than anyone and knows how to kiss me breathless, but he would never sit still and let a vampire touch him."
Truest statement ever. If there was one thing about Kyle Kidman that made him one of the best Hunters in their school—in the world, even—it was the fact that he despised all of them enough to kill them on sight. He was ruthless with his hunt.
Revenge, however looked down upon by Hollywood, was a really great motivational tool.
Maka stared at her reflection in the mirror for a moment longer, studying the girl who looked like any other sixteen-year-old... but wasn't. Long blond hair, large seafoam green eyes, and skin so pale she probably could've passed as a vampire. She looked pretty and normal, but the latter was anything but true. Normal was something she'd never be.
Without another word, Maka hurried out the door and after her friend.
This was only the second time Maka was allowed on an actual mission so she couldn't help feeling a little nervous. The rest of her team was already seventeen. After just turning sixteen recently, she was the youngest by nearly two years. Maka may have been a master at fooling her friends, but a vampire would be able to hear her pulse, her heartbeat, her breaths. She was going to have to find a way to slow them down sometime in the drive from the Academy to the neighboring city's bar.
Besides, all she had to do was act drunk and let a vampire think he could take advantage of her. No big deal, right?
Sneaking across campus was easy, considering they didn't have to sneak at all. Everyone at Gorgon Academy was permitted to come and go as they pleased—so long as they kept the school secret—and most of the teenagers usually left to party on Friday nights like this one. What they were doing seemed like the norm.
It was only when they reached the gate that they ran into trouble.
"Maka? Holy shit, is that you?"
It was Aaron, one of their classmates who was probably taking the late guarding shift at the gate for extra credit. Maka inwardly cringed. Aaron had been crushing on her for years, but he was too nice of a guy to tell to buzz off—although Kid was certainly willing.
Now, Aaron managed to squint then widen his eyes all in the same breath. Needless to say, it wasn't her normal attire so it made sense that it didn't obtain the normal response. "Why are you dressed like that?" he asked, blinking hard. "You look…"
"Slutty?" Maka guessed.
"Like a prostitute?" Liz added in cheerfully.
Aaron couldn't stop staring. "Incredible. Please tell me you're here to entertain a bored guy on a night-watching shift—just to talk, sit, hang out. I'd seriously pay you."
Maka laughed. "Okay, now you're making me feel like a real prostitute. Sorry, but Baby Doll Maka is off for the night to just have some fun." She winked theatrically, and Liz snickered when Aaron looked dumbstruck for a response.
"Damn, I wish I could join you but I'm scheduled to guard until dawn."
Liz patted him lightly on the arm and said sympathetically, "Maybe some other time. Can you open the gate for us?"
When he simply pressed the button to widen the gate, Maka finally realized how lucky they were it was Aaron working that night. Any other person may have been so stunned by her attire that they'd start to ask suspicious questions, demanding to know specifics about where they were going, but Aaron was too distracted to bother with the interrogation. Actually, any other person would probably know that Maka was seldom allowed outside of the Academy during the night. As the "daughter" of the Headmaster, she was especially watched.
And this mission was a rogue one—meaning that they didn't have it approved by Headmaster Albarn, nor was it assigned by any of the teachers.
Meaning that they were basically on their own for this stakeout.
Meaning that if they caught, there was a good chance they'd face major consequences.
Maka thought it was totally worth it.
True to Liz's word, Kid and Harvar were already buckled in the car. Both boys were dressed in casual club clothes. Fancy enough to pass off for regular clubbers, but not too eye-catching—as if their looks weren't enough to make any girl bend over backwards to make them happy. Training as vampire hunters really kept the guys in shape.
The two girls climbed into the backseat and Maka smiled in greeting. "Did you guys wait long?" she asked as Harvar pulled the vehicle away from the curb.
But Kid wasn't listening. He was turned in his chair as far as his seatbelt would let him, staring at Maka with an almost comically horrified expression. "What the hell are you wearing?"
Liz burst out laughing. "Not even five seconds in the car and you already jumped into the protective boyfriend role," she teased. "Nicely played, Kid."
Harvar glanced up to the rearview mirror and whistled. "Damn, Maka. You clean up good."
Kid's eyes slid down from Maka's cleavage to her legs, then he turned back to the front of the car hastily. The back of his neck was red. "You shouldn't dress like that to be vampire bait," he said between clenched teeth. "You already attract too much attention without it."
She narrowed her pale green eyes. "I'm going to be fine, Kid. I'm as much of a Hunter as you are. I can handle myself, and I can sure as hell dress myself."
A muscle jumped in his jaw. "There's hardly anywhere to hide weapons. Where are your stakes?"
Grinning, Maka tapped the side of her knee-high boots. "I have a stake in here, a knife in one heel and a bottle of holy water in the other."
"That's not enough."
"It's not like I can hide them in my clothes with what I have to do, you know," she pointed out. "The vampires might find those."
That did not reassure him. "That's not enough," Kid repeated.
"You've gone on missions with less before," Maka reminded him.
"Yeah, but you're—"
"If you say that I'm just a girl, remember that I can kick your ass into the next century," she warned.
Kid met her eyes in the rearview mirror and actually cracked a smile. When he remembered what she was wearing, it disappeared immediately. "This is a bad idea," she heard him mutter.
Next to him, Harvar snickered.
Even though the four of them had been best friends ever since they were enrolled in the Academy as freshman three years before, Kid and Maka had only been dating for a month. It was a hell of a good month, full of smiles and spontaneous kisses that stole her breath away. But since then, it was almost as if he developed an extensive jealous side. At first Maka thought it was sweet; now she just wished he would stop looking at her like she was some delicate flower.
She may have been blonde and tiny, but she had a mean left hook.
It barely took them an hour to drive into the city, and that was only because Harvar was known for driving at maniac speeds—but it was way better than Kid's carelessness, Liz's easily distracted nature, and Maka's inability to drive at all. By the time they parked a block away from the night club, Maka managed to make her speedy heart seem like excitement.
It had to be good enough. It just had to be.
She was about to climb out of the car when Kid's hand stopped her.
"What is it?" Maka asked.
Instead of answering, he turned to their other two friends. "Liz, Harvar, can you give us a minute?"
They only had to exchange one glance to come to the same decision. "Take all the time you need to talk," Liz said with a grin as she and Harvar climbed out of the car. "Emphasis on the talk part. Don't forget that Maka is off-limits to you tonight!"
When the car doors shut, closing them off from the rest of the world, Kid swiftly turned and maneuvered through the space between the chairs so he was next to Maka in the backseat. She started to comment on it when she saw the look on his face.
"You don't have to do this, Maka."
"Kid—"
"I mean it," Kid insisted, staring deeply into her pale green irises with his pleading gold ones. "You have nothing to prove. We all know you're a great Hunter and will end up being one of the best. There's no reason you have to put yourself at risk for this." He clenched his jaw and scanned her barely-there attire once again. "I don't like it."
"You're just jealous that I have to act as blood bait," she tried to tease, but Kid didn't even hesitate.
"You're right; I am jealous. Crazy jealous. The thought of a vam—" He cut himself off then amended, "Of one of them putting his hands all over you makes me want to turn a building upside down. However idiotically possessive this sounds, you're mine and I love you and don't you get it? I'd hunt a million of them on my own if it made you feel like you didn't have to do this."
"That's not why and you know it." She shook her head, feeling her heart beat fast at his confession. "Dad said—"
"I don't care what the Headmaster said."
"But he won't let me go on a mission!" Maka said angrily. "I'm sixteen and totally eligible but he still won't assign me to any hunt—because I'm like his daughter, because he wants to protect me, and because he doesn't give a damn that I'm probably the only junior that hasn't been on at least twenty assignments."
She'd waited years for her chance—just like everyone else had—but when her time finally came, her adoptive father had changed his mind and said he didn't want her leaving campus for hunts. Worst of all, she couldn't even argue because he was always the Headmaster of Gorgon Academy first and her father second—meaning that his word was law.
But there was no way Maka would sit around and let everyone else do what they were meant to while she had to watch from the sidelines. Not only was it not fair, but it wasn't right. She'd worked harder than anyone else her entire life. Why should they all be allowed to hunt vampires and she wasn't?
That was why the four friends created their own mission, using the Academy's tricks and preparation, but none of their permission. The plan was to stake as many vamps as possible to prove to Headmaster Albarn that Maka was ready to be a part of a hunt.
It was Liz's brilliant idea; the others had to be conned into it at first. Did that not explain enough?
"Why is wanting to protect you a bad thing?" Kid whispered.
Maka stared at him like he suddenly grew another head. "Kid."
It was all she had to say. He closed his eyes and exhaled, trying to push away his frustration like a curtain. "You know I'd give anything to keep you safe."
"I know," she said, almost sadly, as she trailed her fingers through his dark hair. "But you can't protect me forever."
Kid caught her hand and held it against his chest, and her eyes widened the quick rhythm. His heart beat fiercely beneath her fingers. There was no plea on his face, but the pace of his heart—a speedy tune of worry—was worth more than any amount of begging. "Please, Maka."
God, why didn't he just tear out her heart and stomp all over it? Anything would be less painful than this. "Tell you what," she said after a moment. "As soon as we finish this, I'll show you exactly what I did to get the vampire's attention." She twirled a lock of her blond hair around her finger and looked up through her lashes suggestively. "I'll even wear the outfit."
He laughed out loud, filling her with overwhelming relief to hear it. It was far from his usual amount of mirth, but it was a start, compared to his earlier darkness. "You're such a tease, Maka. I pity the poor bastard who has to go up against your charm."
Maka grinned. "Don't pity him—stake him."
"Count on it."
Before the conversation could go further, Kid pushed her back against the door of the car and kissed her with everything he had. It was so hard and passionate and consuming that it almost burned; it did burn, all the way from her head to her toes. Maka let out a small moan he pressed harder, running his hands down the length of her body and stopping only to yank her leg up so she was wrapped around him. Kid was everywhere, charging her with electricity, and—
Suddenly the door disappeared from against her back. Maka yelped as she fell backward, literally tumbling out of the car in a heap with Kid on top of her. Groaning, he rolled off and they both looked up to see the faces of Liz and Harvar looking down at them.
"God, Kid," said Liz. "What part of 'Maka is off limits' did you not understand?"
Harvar looked like he was suppressing intense laughter. "You guys do know that you were in a car, right? With windows that poor pedestrians could easily see through if they walked by?"
Kid groaned again and threw his arm over his eyes, but they could all see the flush on his cheeks. "Leave me alone."
"Funny you say that because that's exactly what we have to do." Liz pulled the blonde to her feet and began to pull her away down the sidewalk.
The golden-eyed boy was on his feet in an instant. "Wait a second—"
"Sorry, but the mission is officially activated and we have no time to waste!" Liz grinned and saluted as she proceeded to drag Maka away. "Don't worry, Kid. I'll find someone nice and bloodthirsty to take care of Maka!"
Behind them, Kid's growl was mixed together with Harvar's laughs.
"Damn it," Maka muttered as they walked towards the club and away from the car. She'd finally managed to slow her heartbeat down a little, and Kid destroyed all of her efforts with one simple kiss.
But that was more than a simple kiss, her mind whispered. Her fingers touched her lips tentatively in agreement.
Damn it.
A spray of mist in her face made Maka blink, pulling from her kissed-out phase almost as effectively as a bucket of water. Liz had sprayed her with scented body mist—like perfume, but slightly less strong—and continued to swipe the blonde's lips with flavored lip balm. A quick whiff confirmed that it was like vanilla.
As rumor had it, vampires loved vanilla.
"What are you doing?" Maka asked, but the older girl cut her off with a hiss.
"Don't talk!" At the command in Liz's voice, Maka froze like a statue and the brunette rolled her beautiful blue eyes. She finished applying the lip gloss then proceeded to beam at her masterpiece. "Sorry, I just had to fix you up after Kid—totally selfishly, in my opinion—put his scent all over you. We can't have the targets thinking you're actually taken, remember? The jackass."
Barely listening, Maka glanced back to the car to see Kid still watching her, his gold eyes unreadable except for the undeniable hunger and lust in them. She shivered despite the warmth of the night. How could one look affect her so much? How could one look have her doubting everything she'd come here to do, even knowing it was what she was meant to?
Linking arms, Liz dragged her away and snickered as they rounded the corner, away from the boys' sight and towards the enemy. "Kid looked like he was ready to murder someone!" Her voice held amusement and pride.
"You're so bad, Liz. You're trying to get on his nerves, aren't you?" Maka shook her head, but she couldn't help but smile endearingly at her friend. Kid said Maka was the tease, but Liz was much better at poking fun. They both knew that Kid would probably be dying to run in after them but their plan only worked if they came in separately so they didn't look suspicious. He was bound by his own rules.
"That boy needs to know that you'll be fine on your own. It's not like we're not here without them, anyways," Liz said cheerfully.
Maka hesitated; they were nearing the club now. "Were you nervous on your first time?"
"Not when I had my parents backing me up."
A slight tinge of jealousy hit her. At Gorgon Academy—which was created to train the obvious: vampire hunters—most students had parents that were also Hunters, her friends included. That meant they had an advantage by being legacies and by being taken on outside missions with their Hunter parents. As part of the ten percent of students whose families were made of ordinary people—or who were orphans—Maka didn't have the luxury of extra practice.
Instead, she had to wait for her sixteenth birthday to be eligible for actual field work. That was the age that the Academy recently decided was safe. Since Maka had enrolled as a freshman two years early, thanks to the fact that she'd been living at the Academy since she was an orphaned baby, she was younger than all of her friends by over a year. Thus, this was only her second mission when the rest of her team had already been on so many.
But that didn't count the many attacks on the Academy, which raised her vampire kill count to seven. She was proud of every single one.
Liz gripped her elbow tighter in warning as they approached the entrance. The show was about to start.
And… action.
"This isn't a good idea," Liz said loudly in a worried voice. The girls flashed their fake IDs at the bouncer and slipped inside. The man seemed to eye them suspiciously through his sunglasses as he let them in, but he didn't say anything. Thank goodness that this city let people start drinking at eighteen. Maka could barely pass as that; she would never be able to pull off being twenty-one, and this particular sort of mission only worked if they could get into a bar.
As expected for a Friday night, the club was packed with people just looking for a good time. The music was loud and the energy was at its peak; the dance floor was flooded with grinding humans. People were drunk and were ready to do anything... and that meant that the vampires were out, ready to take advantage of that.
Pushing away from her friend, Maka stumbled a bit and frowned. "Why not?"
"You just got out of a relationship, and going out to a club..." Liz shook her head. It was strange to see her as the voice of reason, even if it was just an act. Maka had the sudden urge to grin. "Ben isn't here to watch your back anymore and I can't do it myself."
Ben was the name of her "ex-boyfriend." Maka pretended to flinch. "I don't need him here to protect me."
"I didn't say—"
"And you know what?" she continued. "I don't need you here either. If you're so against this idea, then just go."
Liz looked hurt. "I can't leave. I'm your ride home."
"I'm a big girl and I can find my own ride," she said airily. "All I want to do is have fun tonight and you're killing my buzz."
"Hana—"
"See you at home tonight," Maka called back over her shoulder as she turned to walk away. She let a flair of mischievousness fill her voice as she added, "Or maybe not."
Elizabeth Thompson was a proud woman that day.
The club was packed and the music was loud, but she knew that at least some of the vampires had been listening. Maka was a pretty blond girl who just got out of a relationship, wanted to have fun, and didn't have a ride home. How could a bloodsucker possibly resist?
Leaning across the bar, she ordered a shot—one that wasn't too strong but was enough to get people's attention—and was aware of several pairs of eyes watching as her skirt hitched up a little higher on her thighs. She felt relieved and proud that things were going well so far, yet she also felt slightly embarrassed by how she was acting. That last emotion she was going to have to brush away.
Casually, she turned around to survey the pulsating crowd. Vampires were good at blending in, but as a Hunter trained since she was a baby, Maka was better. She knew what to look for.
"Hey."
Maka turned towards the voice. It was a boy, probably eighteen or nineteen years old, with pale blond hair and a tentative smile. His eyes were brilliant blue, even under the flashing lights. Faint pink colored his cheeks from the warmth inside the club.
Disappointment flooded her. He was definitely a human. But she couldn't exactly just turn her head away from him, not when she just made that scene of wanting to have fun with anyone. It might turn the vampires away, and most people wouldn't try after this guy if she simply rejected him because he was actually really cute.
"Hey," she said sweetly, forcing a grin onto her face.
The boy cleared his throat. "I'm Hiro."
"Hana." That was the name on her fake ID.
"Do you want a drink or something?" he asked.
As if on cue, the bartender slid the drink she'd ordered towards her. Maka picked it up and tipped it towards the boy with a smile.
He flushed. "Or you already have one. Cool."
Maka couldn't help but laugh. Hiro may have been human and not a part of her mission, but he was sweet for a regular human boy. Innocent. "Did your friends dare you to come and talk to me?" she asked. He didn't seem like the type to come over by himself. From the way he reddened even more, she knew she was right. "Not exactly your scene, is it?"
"Not really," he admitted. "But you're really pretty so it's okay." As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he blanched. "Oh, shit, I did not just say that."
"It's okay," she reassured him, stifling a laugh. The boy looked like he wanted to bang his head against a wall. Maka felt a sudden surge of regret that she had to find a way to get rid of him since she needed to flirt with vampires instead. Hiro seemed like the kind of guy that regular human mothers would've loved their daughters to date. Too bad Maka had never been a regular human girl.
How was she going to tell him to get lost without disinteresting the vampires? Liz's only advice had been to act slutty, sexy, and spontaneous at all times. She did not tell Maka what to do if she encountered a regular human boy first.
"Are your friends watching?" she asked suddenly.
Hiro looked surprised. He glanced over his shoulder at the group of people that were sitting in the back corner, not-so-discreetly staring at them. "Yeah. Even though they said they wouldn't." His tone was dry.
"Then let's give them something to talk about," Maka suggested.
When Hiro looked confused, she reached up to grab him by the shirt and pulled his lips down on hers. He stiffened with shock. After a moment of initial surprise, he softened into the kiss and lifted his hand to graze her cheek. He was a pretty good kisser, she couldn't help but note before pushing him away.
Poor guy looked completely disoriented. Maka smiled as sympathetically as she could, all the while turning back to the bar. "Now you have a story to tell."
"I—" Hiro was at a loss for words.
"I think the girl meant that as a dismissal," snickered a deep voice from her other side. Sitting in the seat next to hers was a another blond guy, but with skin pale as snow and eyes so dark that she almost couldn't see the red in them. Almost.
Vampire. Finally, she thought, although she didn't feel as relieved as she wished she did.
Hiro narrowed his eyes at the vamp in an expression that was completely different from his earlier shy innocence. Anger contorted his features, making him so fury-driven that he rivaled—maybe not Kid—but other vampire hunters in the middle of their hunt. "What the hell are you doing here?" Hiro all but snarled.
The vampire smirked at him, flashing perfectly straight teeth. "I'm here to let the girl have as much fun as she obviously wants." His eyes slid up and down Maka's body and she fought back the urge to shiver. "Thanks for warming her up for me, but I can take it from here."
Hiding her revulsion, she grinned at the vampire to let him think that he had her then turned to shrug at Hiro. "It was nice to meet you," she said with feigned disinterest.
Once again, Hiro didn't seem to know what to say, but it seemed like more of an inner struggle than anything else. Probably because he didn't want to leave the teenage girl by herself with a guy who looked to be in his mid-twenties. Thankfully he didn't know what Maka did: that the vamp must've been centuries old because of vampire immortality. A white knight like Hiro never would've left her alone with him then.
Hiro stood there for a moment longer, his fists clenched at his sides, teeth pressed together, before storming away. She watched him regretfully for embarrassing him like that. I'm sorry, she thought sadly. I don't have a choice. The vampire was her mission and she couldn't jeopardize that for a human boy's feelings.
Then she slid her eyes slightly to the left and saw Kid sitting at a table by himself. Ten minutes must have passed since they first got into the car and the two boys were supposed to come in. He wasn't even trying to hide the fact that he was watching her like he was supposed to. His expression was unreadable.
Embarrassment flooded her and she turned away from him hastily, reprimanding herself for feeling that way when it was her job. Kid didn't have a right to look down on her.
"So you're name is Hana, right?" the vampire said, bringing her back to the moment. "I'm Justin, and this is my brooding brother, Soul." He pointed to the guy next to him who Maka hadn't noticed earlier. With his stark white hair and jagged teeth, Soul looked nothing like his "brother" except for his flawless skin and blood red eyes. He was a vampire as well.
"I'm not brooding," Soul muttered. "You're just way too happy."
"There's that too," Justin said. "But what about you, Hana? Why are you here?"
It was obvious that he already knew from watching her earlier scene, but Maka decided to humor them. "I'm here to have fun!" As if to prove her point, she drank her shot in one gulp. It burned all the way down.
Inclining his head towards where Hiro had left, he asked, "That boy wasn't bad enough for you?"
"Too innocent and inexperienced." She dropped her voice a little, leaning forward so that her cleavage practically bulged from the top of her corset. "I need someone who knows what he's doing."
"Now that's what I'm talking about," Justin purred, placing a hand on her arm. His skin was so cold that she wanted to shiver. Tugging her closer, he positioned himself so that their noses were touching and their eyes were only inches apart. His glowed red.
"Nice contacts," she told him humorlessly, knowing full well that they definitely weren't colored lenses.
He smiled.
Then his phone buzzed in his pocket and he leaned back. "I need to take this," Justin said without even looking at it. "But you two have fun without me, okay?" He nudged his brother, gave Maka a smoldering glance, then slid away from them with a grace that only a vampire could manage.
Maka let out a breath, suddenly realizing that she'd been holding it. She shouldn't have felt relieved, but she did. Justin made her uneasy. He seemed too confident that he could take Maka, too proud to admit defeat, and she felt he'd be far too fast to pull down her pants.
Now she only had one vampire to lure in, and Soul didn't look as inclined to jump into bed with her from the first ten minutes. She was going to have to try a different tactic with this one. Suddenly Liz's "out-cleavage the bloodsucker" advice didn't quite cut it. Soul was already openly ignoring her, as if she was still talking to his brother and didn't give a damn.
"Do you want to dance?" Maka called over the music for show. She knew that his vampire hearing would make her words clear as day.
Soul glanced at her. "I'm not really the dancing type."
"Oh, come on! Who doesn't love to dance?"
"Me."
Unperturbed, Maka slid gracefully over so she claimed Justin's abandoned seat and propped her elbows up on the counter. She smiled at Soul with a smile she hoped looked more stunning than the grimace it felt like. But he wouldn't even look at her.
Mayday, mayday, the vampire is not turned on! When he didn't look ready to change his mind, Maka exhaled to get his attention then pressed her teeth into her bottom lip slightly and released. It was a trick that she learned to use with Kid, only meant to be used as a last resort when she wanted something.
Bingo. Soul's eyes dropped down to her lips.
She smiled at him. "You're not used to this whole clubbing scene, are you." It wasn't a question.
Grunting, he switched his attention to the bartender who was serving drinks to some other couple. "This isn't my first time, if that's what you're implying."
"Don't worry; I'm not denting your ego or anything," she assured him. "To be honest, this isn't really my scene ether."
"You seem to know what you're doing."
A proud smile rose to her lips before she could stop it. "Glad to know I'm not as awkward as I feel."
"Can I get you two anything?" the bartender asked, stopping in front of them as he polished another glass.
"Give me the usual," said Soul. Not boldly or confidently; just plainly, like a guy asking someone to pass the salt.
"One for me too," Maka said in response. She was going to have to make this her last drink; she could already feel the buzz from the shot she had earlier. The downside of this being her first time was that she had no clue what her alcohol tolerance was.
Soul eyed her curiously. "It's probably not a drink for a girl as tiny as you."
An eyebrow shot up. "Are you seriously cautioning a girl at a bar about getting drunk? You have to be the most gracious guy I know!"
If he was a human, Maka was sure Soul would've turned red.
"No, it's cute," she insisted, biting her lip to keep from laughing.
"Thanks," Soul muttered sarcastically. "Call the brooding guy at the bar cute. You really know how to make a guy feel better about himself."
Maka laughed for real this time. "I thought you said you weren't the brooding brother," she teased.
"You're right. That's my other brother, Akane. Once you meet him, I'll seem like a ball of sunshine."
"And you're telling a joke too," she exclaimed in mock-astonishment.
The corner of his lip twitched. "Don't push it." Then his head lifted and tilted slightly to the side, as if he was listening to a conversation far away. His back straightened; stoic Soul was back. "Justin should be back soon," he told her monotonously. "You'll have way more fun with him."
"Nah, it's okay," Maka said. "I'd rather talk to you."
Soul gave her a sharp look. "Why?"
She shrugged. "You're nicer."
A brow rose. "If you wanted nice, you would've stuck with the other boy."
Guy had a point. "You're funnier," she tried again, and this time Soul snorted.
"I'm not the best for that either."
"Soul, I'm trying to give you a compliment here," she said in an exasperated voice. "If you keep throwing them back, I think I'm going to have to strangle you and then I don't think you or your brother will be very happy with me."
"Word of advice? Don't tell a guy you're trying to give him a compliment. It kind of ruins it."
Maka whacked him on the arm and he actually cracked a smile. It was almost glorious, that tiny curve of the mouth. She'd always been the type to take pleasure in making other people smile, but she wasn't sure whether that should've applied to vampires too. Probably not, but the warmth in her chest was unmistakable.
Suddenly self-conscious, Maka was so grateful for the bartender for finally having their drinks ready—two bright glasses filled with sparkling liquid that was ironically red—that she downed a whole gulp in one sip. Almost immediately, she wanted to spit it right back out.
"Holy crap," Maka gasped, eyes flying wide. "What the hell is that? It takes awful!"
The bartender laughed. "It's his regular drink, like you ordered. Guess I should've warned you to sip cautiously."
Amusement lit Soul's defined features. "Told you."
Or maybe she'd imagined it; Maka's world was still spinning. "I think I want to kill you," she said breathlessly. "Be glad that I'm wearing this stupid outfit or I wouldn't be this wary to roundhouse you into the wall—then I wouldn't have to worry about flashing my underwear to strangers."
"Now that's something I would've paid to see," chuckled the bartender. Seeing the two teens' gazes on him, he raised his hands in surrender and backed away. "Sorry. I'm going now."
"Still mad at me?" Soul questioned when the bartender was out of earshot. "I did warn you, you know."
Maka sighed. "Yeah, I know and I'm stubborn and I'm lactose intolerant. I get it."
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"I'm allergic to milk, meaning I can't eat chocolate, meaning life sucks. Wasn't that the whole thesis of that statement?"
The vampire breathed out something that might've been a laugh. "You're so weird."
"And you're sweet," she replied with a slight smile. "Most people would've called me much worse."
"I couldn't imagine," he said, suddenly so serious that her heart caught in her throat. For the millionth time, she wished that he wasn't able to hear her heart pound.
"Did your brother drag you here too?" she asked, mildly thinking of Hiro and how he was pressured into talking to her. And how she was pressured into taking this whole bait job in the first place. Liz was the best at getting her to take risks that would be deemed "clinically insane" by most people.
"Brothers," Soul corrected. "I'm here with a few of my other siblings."
"What?" Maka's heart rate shot up and she pressed her nails into her palms to slow it down. But it was already too late to try to hide it; the vampires probably already heard.
It wasn't unusual for new vamps sired by the same older vampire to consider the others as their siblings, even if they'd been complete strangers. In a way, they did share the same vampire blood and loyalty. Still, Maka kind of hoped that her first target would be one of the rogue vampires, who were made then abandoned by their creators—not someone who had brothers willing to protect his back.
"How many are with you today?" Maka asked as casually as she could manage. She'd only counted the two so far, but despite her training, it took more than a glance to identify a vampire in a crowd. In a club. At night. Under flashing neon lights.
Giving her a sidelong glance, Soul said, "It doesn't matter. If you're lucky, you won't meet the rest of us."
"You're making it sound like you guys are a natural disaster waiting to happen."
"More like an apocalypse," he muttered. "We're only here in a trio today and I'm already sure that there's going to be trouble. If all five of us were here…" Soul shook his head, not even bothering to finish that sentence. But Maka had a pretty good idea.
Relief overwhelmed her so suddenly that she was scared it showed on her face. Thankfully, Soul was too busy not paying attention to her to notice. Three would be fine. She knew that her friends could handle three vampires; they'd certainly killed more than that before. The only thing she worried about was if these vampires would be missed.
"Do you care about your brothers?" Maka asked gently, wondering if there was any way to broach the subject without seeming off character.
Soul shrugged. "They wouldn't be my brothers if I didn't."
"But you don't look like you're related."
"We're adopted. My parents both died when I was young."
"I know what you mean," Maka said truthfully, trying to imagine that he was a real orphan instead of a guy who probably just outlived his family. That made it easier to be sympathetic. "I never knew my parents either. Not even their names. I grew up under the care of someone who had to run an entire organization aside from me—" Meaning Gorgon Academy, of course. "—so it was really like I was raised without a real parent at all."
Soul eyed her outfit skeptically. "You look like you're doing fine. What, your caretaker's money not enough to satisfy you?"
"My caretaker's money? Please." Defensiveness crept into her voice. "I literally had to work for every penny I earned, every meal I ate, every day I survived. It was a mixture of chores and doing clerical work, and I couldn't turn any down without neglecting a meal in the process. Just because I'm blonde and at this club—and admittedly a little slutty—doesn't mean I didn't work hard for everything in my life."
That was the truth and Maka mentally cursed herself for saying too much. But she just hated it when people assumed she had everything handed to her on a silver platter, just because her guardian was the headmaster of Gorgon Academy. If anything, it only made him harder on her.
But when Soul looked surprised, she knew it had been the right thing to say.
"You're giving me the 'don't judge a girl by her cover' speech?" he asked mildly, and she could've sworn the corner of his lip twitched upwards.
"Depends." She bit her lip. "Does it make me seem bitchy or brainy?"
He exhaled something Maka was starting to realize was his equivalent to a laugh. "So maybe you are a little more than a ditzy blonde," Soul said, sounding less dismissive than before. "What are you doing here at the club then? If this isn't your usual scene, I don't get what you're doing in a place like this. And don't lie to me like you did to my brother."
It was harder than she'd admit to remember the reaction Liz had coached her to use. "I don't want to talk about it," Maka said with forced stiffness. "Can't we just pretend I'm here for pure fun?"
"What, you'll let a bloodsucker get into your pants and not your heart?"
Her head whipped towards him in shock. "What did you say?"
"This club is full of lecherous men dying to take advantage of girls like you. They're like leeches. Bloodsuckers. Except maybe a little more dangerous." Soul raised a prodding pale eyebrow. "Why, what did you think I was saying?"
Instead of panicking or sighing with relief like she was inside, Maka cracked a wry smile. "You're really bad at comforting girls in need."
Unperturbed, he shrugged and twisted the simple silver band on his finger. "Maybe it's just me, but I don't exactly take you for a girl in need. You strike me as the type who'd beat up her mugger and tie the bastard up before the police could have the chance to save her."
"Damn straight that's me," Maka said, beaming and feeling immensely pleased that she wasn't being overlooked because of her size—as she usually was. "How did you get to be smart?"
"Hey, can't have myself underestimating my opponent."
"Your opponent?" she echoed.
"Well, yeah. I let Justin drag me to this bar just so I could continue to play the brooding brother part in the corner who'd glare at everyone who came near him, but somehow…" Soul gestured at how close her chair was to his, how the distance between them had closed. "You're beating me in my own game. It's like agreeing to fight a bunny without knowing it has claws. Deadly, furry, scary claws."
A brilliant laugh escaped her lips, and Maka was most startled to find that it was real. "I thought you said you expected me to be a badass," she teased.
"I know that now."
"You're trying to butter me up with compliments, aren't you?" Maka smiled at him, and she was rewarded with one of his half-smiles in return. Her heart started to beat faster, but she couldn't fool herself into believing it was fear or nervousness, like it had been on the car ride to the bar. This pace of her sprinting heart… It was unfamiliar. Different. New.
Soul didn't push her, didn't nudge, and didn't press—but there was something curious in his eyes, something daring, that made his voice come out as more than just a few words. Almost like a challenge. "So are you going to tell me what happened?" he asked.
Maka Albarn was never one to decline a dare. Even if it was a prompt for a lie.
"I just broke up with my boyfriend," she said, like she was admitting something that still stung instead of reciting a part. "He cheated on me and didn't have the nerve to admit it, even after I caught him in bed with her. It was the most embarrassing moment of my life. "
Soul frowned at her in incredulity and she inwardly panicked. Was she not selling this enough? Was he not buying her story?
Hurriedly, she added, "I know it sounds way too common—like, how could I not know that my own boyfriend was a lying, cheating, good-for-nothing bastard?—but I really didn't—"
"That's not," interrupted Soul, "why I was looking at you like that. It's not your fault that you didn't see it coming. I just can't believe he'd do that to a girl like you." He shook his head disbelievingly. "What a damned fool."
Somehow, her heartbeat quickened even more than before, practically jumping out of her chest and diving into Soul's arms. This kind of intense attraction had to be dangerous. "Are you saying that because you think I'm pretty?" she wondered, almost hesitantly.
To that, he didn't answer.
Entwining his fingers with hers, and a little surprised that he let her do it, Maka tugged a little and inclined her head towards the dance floor. "Dance with me?"
The moment seemed to last forever. When Soul finally relented and stood, Maka had a half a mind to jump up and cheer.
Instead, she led them to a dance floor.
It should've been easy to dance with a vampire, what with their superhuman grace and all, but Soul was reluctant to move when surrounded by people on all sides. He kept glancing around like he was expecting someone to jump out at him, stiffening whenever a person brush up against him. Even when he stayed close to her, she could tell he was reluctant to even allow that. That was when Maka realized what was up.
Soul was a newborn.
No other vampire would've been that uncomfortable when surrounded by so many humans. They would've been craving every touch, savoring every bit of energy. To live, vampires not only needed to drink blood but they had to absorb extra energy too. And there was tons of energy in a club, where humans were alive and careless and free. It was one reason how the Hunters knew that there would always be at least one vampire per public party spot.
Here, there were at least three.
In an attempt to bring Soul's attention back to her, Maka pressed closer against him. He stiffened, the minuscule bit of swaying he'd been doing stopping completely, as the warmth of her touch burned against his stone-cold body.
"Look at me," she whispered to him. "Look at only me, okay?" If he decided to release his inner demon, Maka wanted his first target to be the girl who could defend herself and not the regular humans around them. They weren't trained for it like she was.
The fast song ended, fading professionally into a smoother, slower, more intimate tune. They both froze as the bodies around them automatically adjusted into the slow dance. Then Maka, remembering that this wasn't the time to hesitate, started to sway against him.
Soul stared down at her like she was something he couldn't understand. She felt almost exposed under his scrutiny. Then his hands lifted from the tentative spot he'd placed them on her waist, one sliding through the hair on the back of her hair and the other tipping her chin up. His thumb brushed across her bottom lip lightly, causing a shiver to run up her spine.
"If I kissed you right now, would that make me another one of your misters?" Soul whispered.
She couldn't help laughing. "I think I should be asking you that question. Shouldn't you be the one with a million mistresses?"
"Hey, I'm not the one who kissed a boy to make him go away—about fifteen minutes after arriving, no less."
Cringing, she said, "You caught that, huh?"
"It was hard to miss, with the way you entered this club. Everyone was watching you." Soul's movements against her were smoother now than they'd been initially, regaining that vampire grace she'd expected. His confidence must've returned. Or at least his comfort.
"So naturally you'd watch me too—only because everyone else did," Maka hedged with a hidden smile. She raised an eyebrow at him challengingly, daring him to object.
"Only because everyone else did," Soul confirmed, though his tone suggested otherwise.
"Guess we're both really bad at giving compliments," she teased. To hide the heat on her face, Maka rested her head against his chest, noticing his blaring absence of a heartbeat. "Why don't you just admit that you were intrigued because of the way I'm dressed? It's slutty, and I may not be proud, but I'm not stupid. Although I'm pretty sure if you were wearing this skirt, you'd be attracting just as much attention…"
Soul snorted. "I'm doing the world favor by not wearing your skirt, Hana."
Hearing her say her fake name startled her; she'd almost forgotten she was under an alias here. Soul noticed how she stiffened and he went rigid in response, pulling back to study her face. They'd completely stopped dancing at this point.
"What?" he asked, curving a brow. "You seriously think I could pull that off?"
The tension shattered when she laughed so suddenly that it surprised even herself. "I think you could probably pull off a speedo, but that doesn't mean I want to see you in one." She paused theatrically. "Never mind—what the hell am I saying? I'd love to see you in a speedo."
"As long as you wear a bikini."
Maka grinned. "How did we go from just meeting to planning a swim date already? Next thing you know, we'll be shacking up in some back parking lot."
"Parking lots are unclassy," Soul said in mock-seriousness. "If I want to do it, I'd take my girl to an actual bed. Although maybe I would make an exception for a pool… or maybe a bed in the back of a truck… Hell, I'm shitting you. I'd do you in the back of a truck if that's what it took."
Throwing her head back, Maka let out a laugh that was drowned in the intense pounding of the music and the press of bodies around them, but she knew he could hear it perfectly from the way his head tilted towards the sound. "You're dirty," she teased, tongue in cheek.
"And you're beautiful," he whispered, his voice a soft brush against her lips. They were so close that a simple bump from the right direction would push their lips into contact. Maka went still. She knew she should've been the one to make the first move—it was the only part of her training that hadn't fleeted her mind by this point—but she couldn't bring herself to.
Maka had never been the type to believe in love at first sight—after all, it had taken her years to trust just Kid, Liz, and Harvar—but she couldn't deny the instant attraction. Even if it was just lust, she wanted—no, needed—to know if his reaction to her was his own and not a simple impulse to react. She needed to know if he wanted her because he did, not because he knew she did.
His answer was to close the tiny bit of space between them.
Right in the middle of the dance floor, Soul claimed her lips like they were his to start with and he hadn't just met her. Someone elbowed her in her side but she barely felt it. Maka could only focus on how fast everything was moving when Liz had told her earlier that it usually took her awhile to lure in a vampire like this. But his lips on hers, his hands cradling her head...
Was she supposed to feel proud that she was progressing faster than expected? All Maka could think of was how Soul's touch was softer than she expected from a vampire, and how she'd managed to make out with three different boys in the span of one hour.
Kid was going to hate her for sure.
She kind of hated herself.
Soul's hands started to slip down to her waist again and Maka, struck suddenly again by the reminder that this was a mission, took that as her cue. She bit down on his lip lightly and had the satisfaction of hearing him suck in a sharp breath. Biting turned out to be a huge vampire turn-on. Go figure.
"They have rooms in the back," she whispered, more shakily than she'd like to admit, pulling back a little to look at him. That was part of the plan, part of the reason why they'd chosen this club instead of one of the many others. It was easier to have private areas in the back so they could ambush the vamp than track Maka to a nearby hotel.
His eyes searched hers briefly, more so than it took for her to convince him to dance in the first place, and he nodded once.
As Soul led her towards the small bedrooms that were rentable in the back of the club, Maka turned her head back to search for Kid and signal him that she was ready. But he wasn't at his spot. Alarmed, Maka's eyes scanned the club for Harvar but he was nowhere to be found either.
Her stomach started to churn. This plan wouldn't work if she didn't have her friends backing her up. All she was supposed to do was lure the vampire into the back room and distract him enough that the boys could sneak in and stake the poor bloodsucker. Kid and Harvar should have been there. The staking of the first vampire would be like a beacon to the others nearby, luring them right into the rage of the Hunter trap.
Ashes were supposed to fly in minutes and her backup was missing.
Where the hell did they go?
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Soul asked her quietly, pausing at the entrance the back rooms. She found it funny how he was the only one concerned about her well-being for the moment. The vampire, of all people.
Maka tried not to look nervous as she nodded at him. "I'm sure."
All she could do was hope that somehow her friends were watching her anyways.
Author's Note: I just watched Soul Eater and I'm more than a little obsessed with SoMa now. RIP me. Unfortunately, there is a criminal lack of any vampire longfic here so I thought I should do my part. Will be updated every one to two weeks. I adore you all.
~Skye