The two kidnappers winced at the scream from Saihara, quickly sending glances at the door to check it was indeed shut. Saihara had thrown off the blanket covering himself and had stood up on the bed, back against the wall. His scream tapered off into heavy, panicked breathing. "Who are you?! Where am I?!"

His two captors exchanged a look, with the girl biting her lip as she deliberated over something. "Ah, Saihara Shuichi, was it? I-!"

"How do you know my name? What do you want from me?!" Saihara demanded. He appraised the two; the boy was practically miniscule, looking like nothing but bone, but the girl had a significantly stronger frame and may pose a threat if Saihara made an attempt to escape. But then again, Saihara glanced at the dark wooden door, the chances that these two were the only ones at, wherever this was, were slim.

"I know this must all be very frightening for you but-"

"Wow, you're even cuter up close, Saihara~!" chirped the purple headed boy, cutting off the blonde.

All three paused at the interruption, exchanging confused glances – Saihara's were bewildered, the blonde's seemed exasperated, whilst the boy's seemed to just be amused surprise at their reaction. The blonde girl gave the longest-suffering sigh that Saihara had ever heard, even worse than the older detectives would give in the midst of a migraine, and she promptly turned to the boy and picked him up by the back of his shirt. Saihara watched, in the same amount of awe one would watch a train wreck, as the girl carried the squirming and protesting boy over to the door, opened it one handed, grasped the bottom of the boy's shirt in her now free hand, and promptly tossed the boy outside in the same way a bouncer would a drunk troublemaker, before shutting the door firmly.

Who the hell was this girl?

Saihara wouldn't call himself a people person, but he certainly hadn't ever met a girl who could pick a boy up one handed and toss him like a bag of apples. Oh great. If she could do that, then she was probably hiding muscles underneath that sweater, and the chances she was trained to fight had suddenly skyrocketed – meaning she could very well kick Saihara's ass. Good thing he hadn't made a break for it.

The girl inhaled, visibly doing the mental countdown from ten, before she turned to Saihara with a small smile, that might've been reassuring if Saihara hadn't just seen her manhandle her companion. She took a step towards the bed and Saihara pressed his back to the wall even further, gulping. Oh Jesus. Nu-uh, he wasn't doing this. "Saihara? Are you alright?"

The penny dropped in Saihara's mind. Oh. Oh boy. Did he really get captured by the murderers? Was he kidnapped for taking part in the investigation? Is that how they had come to learn his name? Would he be held as ransom? Killed? Forced to throw the investigation? He had to be underground – this room didn't have any windows and that'd make it a prime crime base. But what organisation had teens in it dealing with the prisoner? Then again, in retrospect, what were the police doing having a teen on their investigation team? Though it wasn't farfetched that teens would be involved in illegal activity, but the two had been dressed respectably with no seeming links to their outfits – no gang colors or clan crests. Just what on earth was going on here?

The blonde was watching Saihara with apprehension and slowly made a patting motion in an attempt to placate him. "Ah, please calm down, no one here has any intention of hurting you-"

"Then why capture me? Release me!" Saihara retorted.

The girl's smile twitched apologetically. "I'm sorry, but that's not at all possible right now. I-"

"Why not?!" Ok, Saihara knew he shouldn't be panicking. He should be keeping his cool and stay level headed in such an unknown situation; his uncle had made sure to educate him on what to do in these situations should they ever arise – but oh boy this was legitimately terrifying. "What do you want? Where am I? Who are you people? Wh-"

"Enough."

Saihara's whole body slumped and if it wasn't for the girl swiftly stepping forward to catch him and lowering him to the bed, Saihara would've probably knocked himself out from hitting the floor and gone back to sleep again. But the thought never even entered his brain. All he could hear was…

Music?

Saihara slid his golden eyes to meet the girl's pink eyes. They were watching him intently, seeming almost aglow. Saihara relaxed into her grasp as he stared, his mind being filled with the tranquil sounds of a piano playing a gentle, classical melody. He swore he'd heard the song before, but not being very well versed on music, he couldn't place it. He felt her pat his head, matching perfectly to the beat, and further making Saihara's will turn to jelly. His heartbeat slowed to further match and his eyes grew heavy – if he wasn't careful, he could very well fall asleep like this. He felt safe, none of his previous fears even stirring. Why should he be worried? This girl was so calming, Saihara felt as though as long as she kept patting his hair, there would never be anything to worry about ever again.

"My name is Akamatsu Kaede. Nice to meet you, Saihara Shuichi." She paused to let the detective grunt out the general sound of the returned pleasantries. "You're in my home right now. That boy before was Ouma Kokichi; he's my co-worker. He… um, I'm not sure how to put this… persuaded? No, um, lead? Ah… oh well, he coerced you into coming here, although you don't remember it." She waited to see if he had any objections. Oh? So he came here against his will? Ah well, things happen, it was all inconsequential compared to the waltz of the music. "You're a detective, right?"

"Mmm…"

"You were investigating a homicide case, correct?"

"Yeah." Saihara gave a small sigh as he relaxed further, if that was even possible.

Akamatsu slowed her hand and she blinked. Saihara blinked as well, feeling a cold shiver go down his spine that had the same effect of drinking a sugary drink – refreshing and alerting. Akamatsu hummed and pulled her arms out from where she was semi-cradling Saihara. "Ouma was monitoring the situation for us, when he met you. He… we know who the killer is, but they are much too dangerous for the police to handle." She patted the back of his hand, and Saihara was suddenly sharply aware of how quiet the room was. Where did that music come from? He couldn't hear anything outside so the room had to be soundproofed and the room was too bare to be hiding a speaker – a hidden one maybe?

"Wha-?"

Akamatsu continued regardless. "Due to the… dangerous nature of the killer, Ouma had taken it upon himself to provide you… safety, regardless of your own opinions on the matter. This doesn't reflect the nature of the rest of us, and Ouma will certainly be punished for his actions. However…"

"However?" Saihara pushed himself into a sitting position, ice settling in his stomach. The feeling of danger had returned and seeing how Akamatsu had calmed him so easily was disconcerting. Whatever he was dealing was bigger than your run of the mill gang or mafia.

Akamatsu ran a hand through her bangs to push them back and gave another sigh – at this rate he'd be able to recognise her by her exasperated exhales alone. "Because Ouma has brought you into our home, we can't let you go."

"E-excuse me?"

"I don't know how well versed you are in what is truly going on, but I'll keep it simple: because you've been in a vampire coven and spent so much close contact to vampires, even though it's only been a day you've been asleep, you reek of us now. The demons, the ones who have been killing humans, will be able to track you down easily. You will be tortured for information on our coven location, any information of the nobles, and disposed of as you've witness once you're no longer useful – or worse." She gave a grimace and low chuckle, "plus I'm not sure Ouma wouldn't kidnap you again if we did let you go."

Saihara blinked. He heard what she said, yes, but he didn't process it. This sounded like a stupidly cliché, formulaic urban fantasy story, usually with a reader insert of a protagonist. Did she really mean vampire vampires? No – that would be foolish to assume. It was more likely the name of a group. And demons? Had to be another gang – a rival group. Vampires and Demons. In that context things made a whole lot more sense. They were in the midst of some kind of war, or perhaps they had a consistent rivalry, and now that Saihara had been brought into the stronghold of the Vampires, he'd become the target of the Demons and likely executed. And this is because Ouma, the purple haired boy who had just been flung out of the room, had come to favour Saihara? And if the Demons were a criminal group, the motive behind the murders became a lot clearer – executions; punishment for betraying, not-so-empty threats against friends and family enacted, witnesses, meddlers, whistleblowers, etc.

Akamatsu waved a hand over his face. "Saihara? I know this is a lot to take in at once but I need you to understand." She placed her hand over his and made direct eye contact. Saihara felt himself sweat under the gaze; he'd never considered pink a threatening colour, but in this situation, he couldn't imagine anything more fear-inspiring. It'd also make sense now her capability in being able to easily handle the other boy, Ouma – gangs always needed their fighters. "Do you understand?"

Saihara swallowed but nodded. "I… I understand." Right, right, he couldn't panic again. Panic would raise suspicion and if she was truly capable of not also handing his ass to him, but being able to perform some kind of hypnotism to turn him docile, he wasn't going to benefit from getting worked up.

Akamatsu gave a sigh of relief and rose so she was standing. "Alright. You came in unconscious early last night and have been asleep since then. You've gotta be hungry. I'll take you to get some food."

Saihara rose unsteadily. "What time is it now?"

"Nearly sunset – I haven't gotten much sleep, actually…" Akamatsu frowned and tapped under her eyes to feel for any puffy bags. She stepped forward and opened the door, poking her head out. It seemed the boy from before had scurried off to wherever he had come from. "But that means at the very least that the rest of the coven won't be up for a little bit."

Saihara patted down his clothes, straightening them out before slowly following Akamatsu. She nodded after double checking he was with her, then stepped out into the corridor. The corridors were dimly lit, with lights every ten minutes to keep the plush red carpeting visible beneath their feet – it also didn't help that the dark wood panelling seemed to drain even more light. Saihara peered at the shallow carvings, just being able to make out scenes of trees and animal life. Wow – these guys must be pretty big vampire fans if they were willing to go to these pretty tacky extents. Which remind him: he needed to start getting confirmation about some of the stuff going around here. The sooner he had a clearer picture, the better he could formulate an escape.

"So, uh, Akamatsu?"

The blonde turned and she gave a closed lipped smile. "I know this is a little unorthodox for Japan, but I'd prefer being called just Kaede."

Saihara nodded mutely. So Aka- Kaede was foreign? Or she'd grown up overseas? He glanced over, trying to pick out what her nationality might be. He couldn't detect any accents in her voice, but her syllables were rather rigid – maybe she had her accent trained out of her? That'd make sense – accents were easy to notice and would make you more identifiable, which wouldn't be very beneficial for a criminal. However, beyond her blonde hair and mauve eyes, she didn't look like a foreigner. Maybe European, actually? She could be half – that was probably the likeliest explanation. At a glance, she only looked like a fashionable, respectable high schooler with her pink, comfy sweater and music note skirt – actually, even staring longer than a glance, she still didn't look suspicious.

"Kaede." He tested her name. It was a Japanese name for sure, but it very well could be an alias. He jolted when he she turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow. "Ah, um, what exactly is your… position in this… group?" Not the smoothest but at least it was better than nothing.

She rolled her shoulders and gave a sheepish giggle. "I'm second in command."

"Oh."

"Aha, yeah." She consciously tried to settle a stray bit of hair, grimacing. "Ouma's the coven leader."

Ah, so that explained why the purple haired boy had gotten the idea into his head to take Saihara without hesitation – he had a whole gang under his control. But still, what kind of gang was this if their leader was a scrawny, pint sized, imp-looking boy, and their second in command a girl who looked like she preferred spending her evenings in her family home petting a fluffy white dog and texting, than being in a gang. Actually; where were their parents? Was this a sub-division of a larger group? Were their parents or guardians in the larger group?

"So, these Demons are a rival group?" He took a stab.

"I wouldn't call them rivals, exactly. They're more of a thorn in our side. But I guess they're worse than the hunters." Kaede muttered idly, turning left in an intersection to an equally dark corridor. This damn place looked all the same; if it was animated, the background animators would have a breeze with just being able to loop it all – how did anyone figure out this labyrinth?

"Hunters?" Another group, huh? Was this also a teen-run one? With their choice in names it could very easily be.

"They're just a bunch of old fools thinking they're putting a dent in our population, but are really just helping keep the rogue numbers down." Ok, so maybe they were actually the code name for the police?

"Do the Hunters go after the Demons too?"

"Yeah, they're their main target." Ok, so, that meant that the Vampires likely kept their activities minimal or were better at hiding it, whilst the Demons were in the public eye. This would also tie in with the Demons being the true killers, if, the Hunters being the police, were after them.

"How many Vampires are there?"

"Um, in our coven? A few hundred?"

What? Oh wow, that was a lot. And the way she had said coven implied they weren't the only one. So there were other branches of the same group? Oh great, this was even bigger than he expected. How long had this group been operating? And how had they escaped the notice of the authorities for so long? What did this group even deal in? Drugs? Hooliganism?

Saihara was interrupted from his chain of thought as Kaede finally paused to open a grand foyer, with strong emphasis on the grand. Wow, Saihara thought as he slowed to take it all in, this was either beautiful or also grossly tacky. It was completely marble; the stairs, the pillars, the floor, the walls – all polished to shine. The walls were decorated with oil paintings of likely long dead people in regalia, and even a few large tapestries depicting scenes from greek and roman myths. Saihara's eyes fixed onto a small golden tapestry near his head, which suspiciously looked like byssus – but there was no way a bunch of teens would be in possession of byssus, right? The door they came out was on a second-floor balcony, with an impossibly grandiose staircase leading down to the lower area that could've fit Saihara's apartment five times, with archways leading off to other areas of the base. God, what do these kids do to afford a base like this? Sell mega-drugs?

Kaede glanced over from where she was already at the staircase. "You coming?"

"H-huh? Oh, yeah, mmm."

Kaede glanced around at the millions of dollars decoration. "Yeah, it's probably a bit much to take in at first. The kitchens are just down here, to the left." She gestured to one of the archways and Saihara fell back into step with her.

Saihara had to carefully pad across the marbled floor to stop his feet sliding out from underneath him from how waxed the floor was. God good, it was like walking on ice. Saihara gripped at the end of the staircase railing, ready to push himself across the room to Kaede, when he glanced over at how Kaede easily tapped across the marbling. She walked with such ease, it was like she was floating – he could barely even hear her shoes as they made contact with the floor. Actually, he hadn't heard her make a sound when they were in corridors beyond her speaking. Saihara decided to store this bit of observation; was her quietness part of stealth training?

Kaede giggled as Saihara managed to slide over, steadying him and pulling him to the archway, where the ground was fortunately more stable. It hid two extra doorways, one labelled kitchen, and the other dining room, in the same dark wood as all the other doors. It also suspiciously looked liked it was made of ebony – another item that should be outside their price range. "What does your gang do to earn all this money?" Saihara asked, feeling exasperated by this bold display of wealth.

"Gang? We're not a gang." Kaede frowned in confusion. She turned to the kitchen door, resting a hand on the handle, but kept her eyes trained on Saihara. "What do you think we are?"

It was then that Saihara realised Kaede had never explicitly stated they were in fact a gang, and it had come purely from his own deductions. "Um, you were saying how you were in fight with a rival group, called Demons, and how your group is called Vampires, and so-"

"We are vampires." Kaede then gave a small scoff and brushed the hair out of her face. "Aha, I had been wondering why you seemed so relaxed about hearing that we were supernaturals."

"W-what? I-!" Ok, so either these guys were super fanatics of vampires, or Saihara had finally worked himself into exhaustion.

"We're real vampires." Kaede laughed and smiled, her first one that didn't have her lips closed, and Saihara could very clearly see the two predatory points protruding from her upper arch.

A/N: I've gotten some really lovely comments for the previous chapter – y'all are too sweet! I'm trying to head back into my weekly uploads on Fridays, like I did last year, so to also give me room to upload other one-shots and stuff, DFB will be uploaded fortnightly (I hope), so the next projected update for this should be the 20th. Follow me on tumblr at SilverHeartCreations to see when/what I update. Thanks for reading!

PS: In my notes for this chapter, I put it down that Kaede throws Ouma out in the same way as the "I can't swim"/"How old are you?" vine