Chapter 2

Debra put on some clothes, black Steampunk wears with a Fedora, long trench coat, biker boots, and ebony, thick-rimmed glasses. It was early in the morning, around six o'clock, and she had to prepare for class. She sat on the edge of her bed for a moment and then continued to put on her leather boots that went up to her calves, and on the outside of them had slots for each one of her blessed, silver throwing knives with the cross etched into them. She called them Blessed Blades. Charles-due to his vampirism-couldn't hold the blades without gloves due to the fact of them having a priest's blessings and constructed out of a silver alloy. It would burn him badly if he touched them.

Across from her bed was a dartboard that had three, blessed blades stuck in it, and as soon as she finished putting on her clothes, she threw a blessed blade at the dartboard, and it stuck dead center. She then flexed in the mirror, and said, "You still got it, girl!" She smiled.

At Breakfast...

Fred fixed Debra a quick breakfast, but sometimes it was Illyria who fixed breakfast depending on the time of the morning. When Illyria turned into Fred, it wasn't actually set on a given time, but it usually happened in the morning hours.

Gunn entered the room with his newspaper, and said, "Another missing kid named Tina Shallow is on the city's radar. It's been all over the news."

"Possible case?" Debra asked.

"Maybe," he said with a calm visage. "We've had an uptick in missing kids over the last year. I was about to doze off for the day, but there's something about this missing kid."

"Possible vampire?" She asked.

Fred groaned for a moment, and then Gunn said, "I'm not getting the vamp vibe from this one."

She sat for about fifteen minutes, consumed the bacon, eggs, and biscuit, and then headed for the door with her book bag because she was going to the university. Gunn sat across from her reading the newspaper, but he didn't appear to be paying attention to the room anymore.

Fred cleared her throat and Debra turned to look at her. "What?" She asked.

"No hunting tonight," Fred said with a grimace. She had her arms folded as her daughter walked towards the exit. "That goes for both you and Derrick."

Debra turned around for a moment with her back facing the door. She scoffed, and then asked, "So, it's okay for everybody else to ash a vamp or two, but when I do it, it's a problem? I don't want to spend my life working the front desk at this stupid hotel."

"Hey! Watch your mouth!" Gun exclaimed.

"Sorry," she said in a soft voice. "You guys put me on the front desk so you don't have to worry about me."

"We want a better life for you, Debra," Fred said with a grimace. "Leave the heavy lifting to your father and Illyria." She sighed. "Just finish your degree, and go do something respectable with your life. Maybe away from Los Angeles."

"See, when you say it like that, I feel you're trying to get rid of me," she said angrily.

"You know that's not what I meant," she said, "You're my daughter. I don't want you dedicating your life to fighting demons." She walked from around the counter, and said, "The loss I've experienced from demon hunting is too great to bear. I can't bear losing you, Debra. I can't."

She looked up at Fred, and the stress on her face worried her. Instead of fighting with her, she decided to appease her when she said, "Mamma, I won't ash a vampire unless it's in self-defense."

Little David's Catholic University

The main building was a two-story, Victorian structure, beautiful, and with a dome in the center of it. Debra sat behind the structure on some concrete benches while she studied. She expected her boyfriend to drop by at some point, but she didn't know when. He had a Calculus class that he had to finish up, and then she had her Spanish class.

The temperature was around seventy degrees outside, and Debra enjoyed the nice breeze on her tenebrous face. She had been studying in the Square for about thirty minutes. There was a slight overcast of billowy clouds. The smell of a man's cologne caught her off guard, but she knew it was her boyfriend's scent.

Debra sat quietly on the benches in the center of the school's grounds, and she studied for her next class period when Derrick French walked over to her. His charcoal-colored skin had a gloss to him that gave him a unique beauty that she loved. He walked with eloquence and grace-and style, and she had a hidden love for him that she never discussed with anybody.

Derrick wore a brown, Steampunk outfit with corduroy pants, a brown vest, and a blessed, silver blade in his brown, leather boots. She felt him place his hand on the back of her neck, and she enjoyed it for a moment. "Am I still invited over tonight?"

"What're you doing?" She asked as she looked back at his corduroy pants leg. "Of course it's still on for tonight even though Mom thinks I need to stop hunting."

"Missed you yesterday," he said with a smile. "Where are we hunting?"

"I'm not sure yet. My father and Illyria went without me last night, but they came across a dead woman killed by a Leech Demon."

"Leech demon?" He asked with a grimace. "In my BOS, the Leech Demon infects Nephilims. Then, if a Nephilim infects a human being, the Leech Demon hunts down the infected human and eats them."

"Yeah. That sounds about right," she said. She smiled at him for a moment and looked past him at all the students shuffling across the campus. Everything happened so fast that she could barely keep up. "Fred's highly against us hunting, but Gunn and Illyria can't do it all. If an infected Nephilim is running around, it can be anybody."

"That's true," He said, "The Nephilim in my BOS appears to be from India." He paused for a moment, and then asked, "What's wrong with us hunting?"

"She fears we'll end up dead," she said with a grimace. "I don't understand it, but I think Fred doubts your craft."

"Well, a mother will always care about her children," he said, "But I'm a natural-born witch from the Wallace clan. My skills are just as powerful as any witch in a thousand miles."

"Yeah. I don't know about that," she said, "Charles knows some powerful witches."

"Yeah," he said.

"Fred goes out of her way to keep me safe," she said, "And sometimes it's annoying, but I wouldn't change it for the world."

At Cafe:

Often, after school and around five o'clock in the afternoon, she had a coffee with Becky Lee and Pamela Khanna, two of her friends from the East Side of town, and they discussed boys and mean instructors. Slowly, they drank their coffee at the East Side Cafe, a coffee house with a large Hispanic customer base. They sat next to the front window in a booth and Debra was fixing her coffee with two drops of creamer and one t-spoon of sugar.

Pamela hadn't arrived at the restaurant yet, and from what she could tell, the sun was starting to fall. Becky was a frumpy girl who wore drab clothing like one of the nuns and didn't have a boyfriend at all. Sometimes Debra wondered if she had a real interest in boys because she never dressed in a manner that would attract a man. Her clothes fit like she didn't try them on before she purchased them. It didn't matter. Debra appreciated her company because she loved to listen.

"So, Derrick has a friend interested in going on a date with you," she said with a smile. "We can all hang at the theater, eat some good Spring Rolls, and relax by the beach." She took a sip of her coffee and Becky kind of looked down at the table for a moment.

"You mean Tre Vincent?" She asked with a serious scowl on her face.

"Yeah. It's Tre," she said. She laid her hands flat on the table, and then said, "We have to find a man for Pamela, but ..."

"Ugh!" Becky exclaimed. "Her parents are like watchdogs when it comes to her. Remember when she dated Mark Ham? They ran him off."

"Don't get me started on that," she said, "They still haven't forgotten the time we brought her home drunk. That was almost a year ago." She pulled out her cellphone, and then said, "I'm going to text her."

Text To Pamela

Debra: Where you at, skank?

Pamela: Work. My boss is working on a child abduction case. Drop by my apartment later?

Debra: I'm there. I did help you move into it.

Pamela: Big deal. It's only across the street from my parents.

Debra: Whatever. You owe me. See you on the flip side.

End of Text

"She thinks she's got it going on living across the street from her parents," Debra said.

"You still live at home," Becky said with a smile.

"The Hyperion is so big that I can actually hide, and won't see them for a week," she said.

Later in the evening…

Vampires didn't have to hunt on random human beings, but some did for the thrill of it. Due to the Los Angeles vampire infestation, vampires plagued the city.

Vampire food banks peppered the landscape like fast food stores, and according to her understanding, they gave enough nourishment for a vampire to survive. Unfortunately, there was always a group of vampires who wanted to relive their glory days and attack random humans for the thrill of the chase. When she caught the subway back to her side of town, she saw two suspicious individuals watching her. She tried not to give any indication that she noticed them, and went on about her business.

When the train made it to her stop, the two vampires followed behind her, and she didn't know what they wanted. One of the vampires had a scar over his right eye, and long, dread-like crimson hair. He probably weighed around two-hundred and fifty pounds. The other vampire was a slender, auburn-haired preppy kid.

When she crossed a large field on her way to the hotel, the vampires flew over her head, landed in front of her, and said, "This one looks extra juicy."

"I don't want any problems," she said with a scowl on her face. "You're going to want to leave me be."

The large vampire walked in front of her menacingly, and she stood with confidence in front of him. She went to walk around him, and as soon as she did, he charged at her. She slid a blessed, silver throwing knife from her right boot, and hit the vampire in the chest with it. It ashed him in one throw.

When the other vampire saw what happened, he tried to run away, but she pulled out another throwing blade, and it struck him in the back of the neck. He turned to ash in front of her face. After that, she collected her knives and went home.

Hyperion Front Desk: