And because it's Halloween night and you need something to read while you eat candy-unless you're from one of those countries that don't do Halloween...
Chapter 12
Some kind of commotion with some crying kids was going on when Joey and Seto reached the apartment. Since Mokuba had to park the helicopter where, well, it wouldn't attract a vampire's attention they'd had to walk quite a bit before reaching it. Seto had planned on leaving her in the helicopter, but like hell she would listen to his smartass Dracula face. And since he was more intent on catching his prey than keeping her safe, he just said 'whatever' and jumped out. Now that she was looking at the apartment building she had worn her feet all over for, the thought that Yugi was in there brought new energy back to her with a zing like three Monster energy drinks at once—not that she had ever done that. Nor should anyone. That could kill a person. Totally.
As she tiptoed to Seto's side, the crying of the kids were muffled, either by a door or by someone finding the key to solving it all. She thought she spotted someone running down the stairs, then a door on the third floor opening and closing.
"Should we wait?" she whispered, trying to be super ninja-like, but Kaiba just shoved her head into an alleyway and gave her a glare that said 'Move and I kill you.' She swung a fist towards his face, but he was gone and heading up the stairs before it had gone half-way.
"Freaking vampire and his stupid, freaking super speed," she growled under her breath. Then she hesitated, glancing at the door that had just closed. The young mom there had been especially helpful in finding Atem, and her eyes had shone as she talked about him and his ability to make the most amazing medicines. An uncomfortable wriggling in her chest came as Joey wondered if she should have told Kaiba about that little bit of information. It didn't seem to matter much at the time. A vampire who made medicine was still a vampire.
Even though she wanted to follow Mr. Tall-Dark-and-Armed, she wasn't stupid about her own capabilities. For all she knew, vampires had super hearing and her stomping up the stairs after Seto would ruin it all. Then not only might she never see Yugi again, but Seto might have her for lunch.
Oh yeah. She hadn't forgotten about that little possibility. No matter the amount of bravado and smash talk she threw at the guy, it was only to cover up the fact that she remembered the feeling of his fangs on her neck, or more importantly, the scarlet gleam to his eyes as he had yanked her down to them.
She had been meat. No. A perfectly grilled fillet mignon in the hands of man who had spent a month living on salads.
She shuddered and ducked back into the alley, which was too much like the one that had started it all. Graffiti spilled across one wall, spelling the name of some gang she couldn't quite decipher, as another gang had tried to cover it up with their own poor art. Leaves had gathered in the corners and collected smog and trash. Trash cans made black shapes in the darkness further down.
Joey wrapped her arms about herself. The black hoodie Mokuba had stuffed over her head was a size or so too small, and thin to boot. Summer was ending, and tonight had to be the first night of the season to get a nip of Autumn chill.
In the quiet, her mind turned to thoughts she had valiantly done her best to avoid. Like, what if Yugi was dead?
She shuddered and squeezed her arms till her knuckles popped. Before Yugi she had been a crazy girl pretending to be a boy in a gang, living for the next fight and on a collision course with suicide. Her old man was barely a blip on the map of her life, as he worked, drank, and flailed in drunken rage. Her mom? Her mom was somewhere far away with her sister, forgetful of Joey's existence.
Yugi…Yugi had changed all that. She'd come into her life like a burst of sunlight. In Yugi, Joey caught sight of all the good things in life she had lost faith in long ago. In Yugi she had a friend and sister and safe place in one. With Yugi, she stopped being a burden or an annoying kid and became an ordinary high school girl who played video games and talked about boys and, well, whatever.
There would be no Joey if there was no Yugi.
Joey was well aware of the fact that having her existence hinged on someone else's was stupid and weak. But that's just how it was, and there was nothing else to it.
Shaking herself, she pushed off from the wall and peered around the corner. She thought she caught sight of movement on the stairs again.
Jeeze, what's taking that bloodsucker so long?
She scowled, squinting at the dark shape near the top. The door opened, spreading light onto a figure with wild hair and lean stance. It looked a little short—
Something large landed behind her. She spun, fists up, scream caught in her throat—
Seto Kaiba was straightening, eyes agleam and little more than a smudge of darkness against the wall in all his black getup.
"…Damn stupid vamp, did you have to freak me out?" she hissed, before all her attention was sucked in to the pale form in his arms. Completely ignoring the fact that he was fanged and did not like her presence, Joey threw herself at the girl, all but tearing her out from Seto's arms.
Yugi's paleness practically made her glow in the darkness. Her long hair was unkempt and smelled strongly of lemon, and she was dressed in a T-shirt and sweatpants that were too big for her. She was also unconscious.
"What did you do to her?" Joey snarled, hugging Yugi to her.
"She wasn't coming, so I tapped her out."
Every hair on her body rose with fizzled alarm. "You what?"
"Shut up!" Seto hissed, his bright eyes enough to cut Joey off short. "She's just unconscious, if your idiot brain had bothered to check her pulse or breathing you would know that."
Joey had already noticed the gentle rise of Yugi's chest against her own. Heat blossomed to her cheeks, though she was too caught up in relief to be embarrassed.
"Mokuba's called a cab," Seto continued. "Head down the street to the next bus stop."
"Thanks. And sorry."
Seto folded his arms, still scowling at her. "Just get out of my life already."
Joey had just managed to shift Yugi around to her back when Seto suddenly stiffened. He jerked towards her.
And in that same moment, a solid, dark weight slammed into him. It threw him out of the alley, over the sidewalk, and smack dab into the middle of the empty street. Even as Joey looked on, huge, demonic-like wings shot out from the back of the man atop Seto. His eyes blazed a brilliant red that outlined the gleam of his bared fangs and wild fury.
Seto, with nearly twice as much mass as his foe, kicked him off. The wings flapped, a swirl of color and limbs, and a loud crash of body and bones right next to Joey made her jump and scream as Seto flopped off the brick wall. A blink later and Seto was up again, all air-cracking snarls and brilliant blue-violet eyes.
Joey only had long enough to register that they were under attack from the vampire who had had Yugi when said vampire appeared before Seto in a blur. She stumbled back. The wild-haired winged demon had Seto by the throat against the building. The way his lips had stretched back from his teeth and his too-wide stretched eyes gave him an inhuman, monstrous look of fury, and her heart seized for Seto, who looked painfully human next to the other.
The lights of a car came around the corner, throwing surreal relief against the claws digging into Seto's throat.
Then the other monster's free hand shot forward like a spear into Seto's chest with a horrible snap of ribs. Seto's eyes shot wide, mouth gaping open like a fish.
The hand tore back out, holding in its fingers a thumping, flesh-like thing.
Joey's knees cracked together. Her mouth had gone dry. Her heart hammered faster than a hummingbird's. Yugi's weight on her back only added to her alarm..
The car came closer, headlights gleaming on the bath of blood down the shorter vampire's arm and on the dark bulge of the heart.
Please let them notice. Please let them call someone. Someone. Anyone.
Just as the car neared, though, the vampire's wings shrunk away, as though in a vacuum, and he flung away Seto's much taller body as though it were a doll into the darkness of the alley.
For a moment, the scene was blinded by the car's headlights. Then it passed without hesitation, nothing to show but its red, rear lights.
And in the orange streetlights, Joey stared back into the murderous red gaze of Seto's murderer. His snarl had fallen away, bringing some semblance of humanity back to his face, but large fangs still stuck out past his bottom lip.
"I'm not going to hurt you," he said in a surprisingly low, smooth voice. "Just give her back to me."
Joey reflexively clutched to Yugi. She couldn't run. The only reason she was still upright at all was because her knees had knocked into each other and now propped one another up.
Blood dripped off his hand where it splashed onto the ground. It caked his front, speckled his face and dripped down his neck. Even as she looked on a dark tongue darted out and licked some off the side of his mouth.
"Please," the mouth said. "Don't make me take her by force."
Give Yugi back to this? Joey would sooner die. And she probably would.
Digging deep into that dark part of her that had been born from the filth and violence of the streets, Joey filled herself with the cool and painted her trembling limbs with steel.
"She was mine first," she said.
The vampire made a small frown, his red eyes searching her face. "Are you that friend of hers I met that one night while you were getting milkshakes? The one that ran away screaming?"
Joey lowered her chin. "Yeah. 'Cept I'm not running this time. Like hell I'll let something like you have my best friend. You'll have to kill me first."
The frown deepened as he jerked his head in the direction of Seto's body. "You should be more worried about that one. Young vampires are unpredictable and bloodthirsty at best."
"Ho, and you aren't?" her throat was getting tight. She didn't know how long she could hold this out.
"Oh, I am. But I have 300 years to temper it." He hesitated, glancing down at his blood splattered self. "Look, I know this is scary, but I swear to you I'll return her to you good as new in just a week. I just need her help with something."
Joey took a few steps back. "No."
And like that, the vampire's niceness vanished and his expression darkened. Once more she saw the gleam of the monster past the human façade.
He dropped the lump of thumping flesh in his right hand.
"I'm afraid I'm done asking."
Just like that, his hand was around her throat, cutting off her squawk of alarm. It jerked her down, reaching behind for the smaller girl on her back.
"Joe…?"
The vampire went still as stone.
Yugi shifted a bit on Joey's back. She let out a little moan of pain.
"Ow, my head." It became something like a whimper. "Joe? What are you—"
Just as quick, he was gone, and Joey collapsed onto the pavement gasping for air. Yugi flopped off with a cry of alarm.
"Joey! Oh my gosh, are you okay? Why is there blood around your—ATEM!"
It was a ground rumbling roar that Joey had never heard from her tiny friend before. The shock alone nearly ruined any attempts she had at catching her breath.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Yugi's bare feet, nearly swallowed up in gray sweats, take a stance besides her. Her righteous fury was palpable.
"What did you do to my best friend?!"
The meek, low voice from the vampire surprised Joey just as much.
"Yugi, I swear I didn't hurt her. The blood is from another vampire she was with, one that had kidnapped you—all this blood on me is from—"
"She by hell doesn't look alright." And then the fury was giving way to tears, angry or otherwise, but Yugi didn't blubber. "Don't you think you're doing enough damage without hurting her? Suck my blood, hurt me as much as you want, but please, by God, don't hurt my friends!"
A low snarl broke through her thick words. Joey snapped her head up, staring into the darkness of the alley where the supposedly dead body was starting to rise.
The fierce shriek that bubbled up to Joey's throat came out as a squeak.
The other vampire sighed. "Of course." He started into the alleyway, braided muscles in the tears of his shirt coiling up for attack.
And before Joey could think better of it, she was on her feet again, stumbling past her Yugi shield towards him.
"Stop!"
He didn't stop, but glanced back at her as he stomped a foot down on the now writhing body.
"What?" he didn't sound too happy. Not at all.
"How is he—" He's undead, idiot, not important. "Don't kill him."
The other vampire scoffed even as he kicked down at the other's head. "If I let him go now he'll kill you, and if not you, the first three people he meets. He won't be able to help it. His human mind is eaten up by the monster in him." Another kick. A crunch. A short, intense animal-like squeal of pain.
"But he's managed to not hurt anyone so far," said Joey, thinking of Mokuba. "And he has a kid brother that will have no one if you kill him."
The vampire paused and looked back at her again. "How old is he?"
"Nine? Ten at most?"
For a long moment, the red eyes jumped about her, considering.
But it was Yugi who spoke up next.
"Is he so much different from you? He tried to kill you, but you kill vampires too."
"It isn't that he tried to kill me," the vampire grumbled, then sighed. "Fine. Idiot's got some potential if he can still squirm after what I did to him anyways." He reached down, messing around Seto's collar.
Yugi and Joey exchanged glances and edged closer to one another till their arms touched.
The vampire must have found whatever it was he had been looking for, as he lifted it up to his mouth and said, "Mokuba, whoever you are, best you come in with some of that blood supply you keep on hand. Your comrade's down."
A speaker crackled. "What the hell have you done to him?"
"What he would have done to me if he could," he said dryly. "Now hurry. Either he gets blood now or I finish snapping his neck."
He tossed down the mouth piece. Then he spun on his heel and flopped down butt first onto Seto's chest like a miffed puppy.
"He'll kill you one day," he said to Joey, his serious tone only adding to the petulant child image he had made.
Joey meant to say something snappy along the lines of 'well I won't be around to be killed, because I'm taking my friend and blowing this joint. Smell ya later.' But, of course, things never worked out for Joey like she wanted them to, her dignity being one of them. She barely managed a smart aleck smirk before the world went black and her knees finally gave way.
And to the guest reviewer who says they're frustrated that it's not finished: I totally understand. You have my word that I am working as fast as I can. Please take this new chapter as my sacrificial offering. Blood included.