Turning – Chapter 10 – Sibling Reunion
"So we're getting these guys?"
John looked down at the two guys walking down the alleyway, probably taking a short cut, and he glances at Dave who looks sympathetic. He had woken up about an hour ago, hungry in both the 'I need human flesh' way and the 'I actually need food to eat' way. After getting some shitty McDonalds for the three and finishing their meals, the boys set out to find some teens or adults. They were hoping they whoever they'd find wouldn't be drunk, apparently drunk meat tastes absolutely terrible, and it can sometimes get the demon drunk if they eat too much of it, according to Dirk.
"Yeah, they don't look too drunk so we'll be good. If we save some of the meat then we'll be good to go for a couple of days if we share it evenly." Dave glares at Dirk, and it looks like he's trying to not rip out the elder's throat. John had been confused about the two sibling's rivalry from the very moment he saw the two about to kill each other in the apartment. Even when they explained what it was at dinner (a crappy booth that was about to fall apart) he still didn't get it. So one guy preferred to hunt and one didn't, why would that cause such a bad relationship between the two? It kind of reminded him of him and Jade.
Don't think about that, you'll just end up crying openly. Distract yourself with the hunt.
"Ugh, it's going to take me a really long time for me to get used to this..." John mutters before getting in position to leap. A grip on his arm stops him, and John looks back at Dave confused. His friend turns to Dirk and asks a question.
"You're a hundred percent certain that these guys are good to get." Dirk just grunts and rolls his eyes, quickly vaulting himself over the edge of the building and then summoning his wings in a spark of orange electricity. They flap once to stop the speed of his fall, and he lands silently behind them, creeping up behind them. Dave takes John and they head in front of the two from above, then they copy Dirk.
The two strangers take a step back, one nearly shouting in shock, and Dave takes a step forwards, letting his disguise fall, and John steps up as well and copies the Born, their horns and tails out in the open. The guys turn to run, only to be stopped by Dirk, who grabs one by the throat and makes the other lose his footing by flicking out his tail. Dirk's horns are similar to Dave's, they curve forwards slightly from the base before smoothly curving back and then going up again at the tip, a main difference would be that they're more smoothed that ridged.
John leaps on the other guy who's still down and attempts to claw at the guy's neck, only to have an elbow shoved into his throat. He reals back and then suddenly the positions is flipped, John is being held down by his neck and the guy is leaning over him with a pocket knife raised, ready to stab down into John's skull. Dave lets out a snarl, a pure, inhumane snarl before the guy goes limp above him.
John's vision is tainted with black, and each breath is long and raspy, trying to take in as much air is possible with a 200 pound man on top of him. Dirk is lifting the body off of him with someone else and Dave is pulling him out from beneath him. John coughs, and slowly his vision returns to normal to see Dirk and another girl a few feet away from him whispering to each other, but Dave nowhere in sight.
"Thank Christ for a moment I thought the guy had suffocated you." John looks up and then blushes, his face become flushed when he realized that he's being held in the boy's lap. John sits up, and winces, letting out another cough as he looks at Dave again, noticing that his friend was equally red.
"Dave, it is a pleasure to see you again, dear brother." The conversation between Dirk and the girl ended and their attention shifted to the two on the ground. "And you are the turned demon that Dave turned, I'm assuming."
"How many people have you told about me?" John whispers to Dave, and the girl lets out a hearty laugh at that.
"My name is Rose Lalonde, and as I stated before, I am Dave's brother from New York. And I have come to hunt."
The teens had taken the humans back to the apartment, Dirk rationalizing it and giving out portions. They made sure to hide the humans, of course, so that the police wouldn't come to investigate. They had eaten their fill (or as close to a fill as they could get), Rose began telling her tale.
"After a… dispute with my family, I came here, figuring that you would be able to keep me here for now, simply because I felt that you could protect me. I also thought that I could get a decent meal here as well, and it looks like I am not wrong."
"So I was right." Dave said, glaring at his brother and then glancing back at Rose. "You knew nothing about the hunt Dirk was planning, did you?"
Rose looked confused and then shook her head, turning her attention to John. "No, I only told him that you had a demon living under your roof." Her attention went back to Dirk and she smiled. "He never brought up a hunt, but we could easily go on one. Roxy tagged along with me, and she'd be a valuable ally if we do go."
"Who's Roxy?" John piped up.
"She's my sister, unfortunately." Rose said. "She's a little bit of a drunkard, and I don't really like working with her, but I don't really have a choice half the time." Rose lifted a hand and scratched the back of her head. "Unfortunately, as I was enraged from her coming along with me without my permission, I left her in the factory that we arrived in."
Dirk let out a sigh. "I'll go and get her; the three of you start thinking up places that we can hunt for a while." The older Strider got up and then suddenly disappeared due to his flash stepping abilities and left the three left the room. Dave, being the only one local to the area, began laying out a plan and giving roles for the other two to do, then he'd check with Dirk to make sure that the plan would work.
It was official, the hunt was on.
Run, run back to the portal, get back and tell the others, go! The Demon panted as he jumped the gaps between buildings, knowing that he only had ten minutes or so to get back.
This was the reason he hated and loved being a lava dwelling Demon. Lava dwelling Demons can live in Lava, their skin being tougher and their bodies more resilient to high temperatures, they even had gills that could allow them to extract oxygen from the lava around them. Unfortunately, to make up for this, they do not have the ability to summon wings and fly.
Normally, he doesn't really dwell on that disadvantage, considering that he was closer to the Empress and her Heiress, Feferi (who he may have a slight crush on), but now he had to get to a building that was about 20 minutes away that held the portal that would close in ten. Even sprinting at full tilt, he only had a slim chance of making it in time. Wings would be extremely helpful, right now.
He was at the third building when the worst possible thing could happen, a large weight slammed into his back, and he was flung down to the ceiling easily. A long, low growl coming out of the creature's throat on top of him scared the lava dweller, and he clawed at the floor in an attempt to get away.
"Becquerel, G-Cat, that's enough." Said a female voice, and the weight that was on his back was now gone. Eridan attempted to get up, and he managed a crouching position before he was harshly kicked in the chest and thrown onto his back, a trident pointing at his neck.
Eridan let out a growl and rolled his eyes. "Jane Crocker, how-w w-wonderful it is to see you." He repeated the 'w's in his words, an odd habit of his, probably brought by his lusus. "Look, as much as I lowe you and your tales of 'demon slaying' I hawe somew-where to be and you are going to make me late."
The girl is tall for a sixteen year old, well over six feet. Her light blue eyes behind the red wire-framed glasses are cold, practically ice as she glared at Eridan. The red trident in her hand is pointed towards him, and her red skin tight clothing with her trade mark symbol right on her chest is… distracting to say the least. The pure white dog and cat are sitting diligently at her sides, G-Cat licking one of its paws and Becquerel growling lightly at the Highblood.
"Well, isn't that a coincidence that we were heading the same way." Jane says, taking another step closer, the cold metal of the trident brushing Eridan's neck. "But, I'll make you a deal, if you tell me why you're in such a hurry, I'll let you go."
Eridan thought for a moment, adrenaline pumping through his veins. He could possibly cast a spell and get Jane injured, but there was no way that he would be able to do so without getting a trident in his throat. Even if he somehow managed to do so, there was no way that Jane's pets would leave him be for killing their owner. He mentally evaluated the time he had left to get to the portal before it closed if he told Jane anything, and the end result was that it would be long closed when he would arrive.
He was in a lose-lose situation.
"The Lalonde's are in tow-wn," Eridan growls out, his voice clear but reluctant. "And they brought up that they might do a hunt. I was heading to a portal that w-will close in a short amount of time to tell the Empress so that they could join in. Only now-w, there's no chance I'll make it, thank you wery much."
The Human has the audacity to giggle at him when he finishes, the High Class that is related to Dualscar, the most feared High Class alongside the Empress and the Subjuggulator. He's about to snarl out what's so funny when a blinding pain erupts from his throat. A few choked sounds escape him and he glances down, seeing the middle spike of the red trident jabbed into his throat.
"Oh, did you really think I was going to let you go?" Jane says, the metal is suddenly pulled out of his throat and he falls back, his gills fluttering as violet blood pumps steadily out of the puncture wound and quickly begins to accumulate in his mouth. He manages to move onto his side and he grips his throat as he coughs out blood, causing him more pain as he tries to stop the blood flow.
"I'm sorry for lying, but really, I wasn't really that honest in the first place." As Eridan's vision starts to darken around the edges, coughing more and only causing more pain, but even that feels a little distant. A blurry figure moves in front of him, and he attempts to growl as he sees Jane move in front of him again. "Thanks for that information though, my friends at Prospit will truly love to hear that."
Oh fuck. Oh fuck, he thought that she was a lone wolf. That's not good at all; he's probably caused the death of four incredibly strong demons because he just wanted to impress Feferi.
Eridan Ampora is filled with self-loathing and hate all directed at himself as the last of his life leaks out of him, his corpse quickly becoming cold as Jane moves quickly over the buildings with her two pets to visit Jade and Jake.