Chapter 10

Reiko walked onwards in the dark, his eyes glimmering. Those who did not know him would have thought him to be a dangerous man, and they would not have been far wrong. But those who would think of him as animal-like, and savage would have been way off course. Those however, who knew him, would have been right in thinking that Reiko was not necessarily being dangerous, more that his hazel eyes were shining with excitement at the prospect of a mission.

Every Saturday, the vampires of Reiko's guild would all meet up at the abandoned factory space to discuss the latest news. Reiko was always present at these meetings, presiding over who got to talk when, like a patient teacher. Everyone got their say. The news could vary from anything as little as which places where new for finding willing "donors", to something as big as the mention of rebellion in one of the neighboring city's guild.

This time, there was no mention of Rebellion, nor any mention of new "donors". Instead, something more alarming, and something directly concerning the guild had been mentioned. Apparently, there had been three of the younger, newer vampires of his guild and they had been walking through the area, chatting and talking about this and that, like how any human teenagers would have done. Two of the vampires walked ahead of the other, who had lagged behind, and eventually the conversation had been drawn to a question. The two had given their opinions and had turned to the third to ask for his. However, when they turned, they saw that he had fallen to the floor, dead. There had been no sign as to what had done this.

So now Reiko was scouting out the area, slightly nervous - he would be a fool not to be - but still trying to portray a sense of confidence. The life of a Head Vampire was never easy. He paused after taking every couple of steps, trying to listen to whether someone was stalking him, or whether he was being hunted down. He often cast quick glimpses behind him and even took to looking up the walls and in the shadows, his sharp night vision allowing him to see into every nook and cranny of each alleyway.

Dressed in all black, he was like some kind of sleek jaguar. Certainly, he had all the grace of one. He continued to pad along, his feet making no sound. He suddenly paused, slightly confused, and uneasy, wondering, unsure. Had he heard something behind him? He remained in the same place, not even trying to look back, instead trying to reach all areas around him with his senses.

There seemed to be nothing. Was he imagining it?

Possibly.

Yet Reiko knew more than anyone else that he was one of the few people who were extremely hard to trick or scare.

He slowly, surely started to make his way along the alley he was in and paused before he started to cross into the open. His heart slammed in his chest. He swallowed hard and then paused again, turning in a full circle, his staff out in case of attack. There was nothing. A couple passed him by, taking in his dark appearance, his narrowed eyes, and the weapon in his hands. They hurried past him, down into the alleyway he had just come up.

Reiko slowly let down his guard, feeling slightly stupid. He knew what he must have looked like to the couple that had just passed him and gone down the alley he had just come up from. He must have looked like some kind of thug. He narrowed his eyes, took one long last look around before he hid his staff in the folds of his trench coat. He took a deep breath and then carried on walking, continuing his investigations.

---

Along the pier, the waters were calm and undisturbed. The full moon was reflected in its cool clear surface, as were the dizzying myriads of stars. The beauty of the night scene was lost upon the woman who stood there alone, staring at the ruined pier. Bits of wood floated on the surface of the water. The woman slowly shook her head and gave vent to a breathy sigh. Next to her, a red blemish stained the ground. It suddenly seemed to catch her eye and she frowned bending down towards it, placing her hand to the cool pavement.

Immediately, images flashed through into her mind and she gasped with fear as she saw the face of a young boy screaming his last before the bulk of some monstrous beast blocked the vision. Her eyes opened, only to see a man staring at her, a strange smile on his face.

'W-who are you?' The man simply shrugged but didn't move his eyes from her. She looked away, unnerved and slightly bewildered. 'I said who are you?'

'That is none of your concern,' the man whispered. The woman looked towards him quickly and frowned. 'You will not be alive to see the sun rise.' The woman's eyes narrowed suddenly.

'If you think you are the one who is going to see your statement fulfilled, I am afraid you have been mistaken.' The man smiled cruelly, his grey eyes glinting maliciously.

'I think it's you who is mistaken, Harpy.' His face was calm but his voice dripped with loathing and acid. The Harpy glared at him and sudden wings sprouted out leaving two huge tears in the shoulder blades of the top she was wearing. Sooty black in colour, they silhouetted against the moon, arcing gracefully into a curve before spreading out in their entire splendor.

Her violet eyes locked onto the cold grey eyes of the man and her own lips curved upwards into a smile.

'You are a mere mortal. A human being. You have no chance against me.'

'I know.'

'And yet you still think you can kill me?'

'I have killed other harpies before you, wench.' The woman looked disbelievingly at him.

'No! A human could not achieve this! A vampire could but never a human!' The man smirked again.

'And like I said before, you are mistaken. I'm not going to kill you...but that will.' He smirked and stepped backwards, into the shadows. The Harpy gasped as hot breath suddenly played against her back. She whirled around and screamed before acting quickly on instinct and taking to the air.

The dragon launched itself into the sky and propelled itself forward using its powerful wings. The Harpy looked behind her and screamed seeing the dragon was inching closer to her with every second. The gap continued to shorten; she could hear the wings thrumming heavily each time the dragon beat them and she could hear the dragon's breathing as it got closer and closer. She felt movement behind her and knew without looking back that the dragon had opened its mouth, beckoning her inside.

She gasped as she felt the dragon whirl around suddenly, the wind it created knocking her off course. She paused in mid-air, wings slowly flapping, and turned to see a lone man flinging rocks and stones at the dragon, trying to distract it. The dragon snarled before zooming down like a rocket towards him. The man dodged quickly, too quickly for him to be a human.

The harpy flew higher, curiosity stupidly rendering her to the same area, even though she knew she should have moved a long time ago. The man had somehow managed to find himself backed onto the very edge of the ruined pier. The moon shone down on him and at that precise moment he looked up. The Harpy's eyes widened. What the hell was a vampire doing saving a Harpy? Was he insane?

---

Reiko stared around wildly, searching for any escape route. The ground shuddered under him as the dragon landed heavily, causing his legs to buckle, sending him crashing to the ground. He slowly picked himself up and began to back away as the dragon began to advance on him. One foot landed on nothing but air causing the vampire to slip and sway alarmingly.

Reiko swallowed hard, but tried not to let his fear show. The dragon was now crouched down directly before him, yellow eyes watching him balefully, alertly. Reiko held the gaze but suddenly the dragon charged. Reiko's eyes widened with shock and surprise but suddenly he launched himself sideways into the murky water.

Bubbles seemed to rise up from all around him as he plunged into the ice cold water, struggling against the instinct to gasp as the water stole away most of the control from his body. There was a huge disturbance from behind him and he was sent forwards from the underwater jets that were created with the impact.

He turned around and was filled with a nameless dread as his eyes fell across the blue dragon. It turned quickly, seeing him immediately. It gave vent to a huge roar and came at him. Reiko quickly turned and swam for it, knowing even before he started that it was useless. He forgot himself as he saw the dragon suddenly overtake him and turn open jawed to take him in. He screamed with pure fear, allowing water to gush into his mouth. His cry was cut short as the dragon cannoned into him, sending him floating up towards the surface.

He broke the water, gasping and coughing, spitting out the dirty water he had swallowed. He retched again dryly and shivered as he treaded water. Something suddenly smashed into his body, and Reiko heard the ominous crack before he was aware of the excruciating pain in his arm. Wearily, he looked up to see the dragon's tail surge out of the water, freeze as it blocked out the moon from his vision before it suddenly came crashing down.

He screamed with sudden pain as he suddenly found himself dragged out of the water. The spray of the tail crashing against nothing but water flew up and hit him in the face. He coughed and spluttered and tried to fight off the pain his arm was causing him before he looked up, astonished to see the Harpy was carrying him to safety.

'What are you doing?!' he called. The woman looked down towards him and smiled.

'Saving your life, obviously.' The two gained altitude, soaring into the clouds to avoid being seen from anyone below. Reiko felt his breath coming in gasps and started to shake all over as they went higher. The Harpy frowned.

'Are you okay?' Reiko didn't answer but continued to shiver, his eyes screwed shut, clinging onto the Harpy tightly. She imagined that she could feel his heart slamming against her own. That was ridiculous...vampires didn't have hearts that could actually beat.

'Can't...breathe...' Reiko gasped shallowly. The Harpy began to glide down towards the city, seeing that they were far from the sea. She landed neatly onto the roof of a house and let go. Reiko sprawled onto the roof in an undignified heap, his belly flattened against the roof tiles. The Harpy smiled at him and held her hands behind her back.

'Is that better?' Reiko gave an answering whine but remained lying there with his eyes closed. The Harpy blinked with sudden realization. 'I've never met a vampire who was scared of heights. Come on.' She picked him up again and Reiko automatically latched onto her like a child holding onto a coveted stuffed animal. The Harpy struggled slightly under his grip. 'Hey let go a little, will you?' She took off and landed on solid ground a minute later and only then Reiko let go, still shaking slightly with aftershock. He smiled weakly towards the Harpy but the Harpy only frowned back at him.

'Thank you for helping me,' he said simply. He slowly straightened up, sure that he was back on solid ground and held out a hand. The Harpy didn't take it.

'Who are you?'

'My name is Reiko Kaneshiro.'

'The Head Vampire of this city?' The Harpy raised her eyebrows. The vampire nodded. 'So let me get this straight. I was saved by the Head Vampire?' Her voice had risen slightly in pitch with disbelief. Reiko smiled somewhat shyly at her and nodded.

'Um...what's your name?' The Harpy blinked.

'Rose.' Reiko smiled towards her again warmly.

'Well then, Rose. I thank you for helping me.' He turned to walk away but stopped at Rose's next question.

'Why did you help me?'

'You...looked as though you were in trouble.'

'Bullshit.'

'In that case, I may ask you the same question. Why did you help me?' Rose narrowed her eyes.

'You saved me from becoming dragon chow; it was the least I could do.' Reiko was quiet for a while, mulling over the situation. Should he came out with it yet? Well, he had no choice unless he wanted to fail...

'Then the reason why I decided to step in was because I wish to rebuild the alliance between vampires and harpies.' He watched her expectantly. Her face twitched before she burst out laughing.

'You...' she gasped. 'You can't be serious, can you?' She stared up at him, still laughing before she noticed the perplexed expression on his face. 'Oh my God...you are serious!' Reiko shrugged his shoulders, in the manner of a ruffled owl and looked at her haughtily.

'Of course I'm serious.'

'You really want an alliance.'

'Yes. I genuinely want to reunite the vampires and the harpies. Enough is enough of the fighting. I'm tired of it. It's senseless.' Rose frowned at him.

'So I suppose I'm not the only one who sees this, hm.' Reiko was silent. 'And how successful are you so far in rejoining us?'

'So far? Well I've been making good progress. There's a fair number of vampires who seem to be all for it.'

'That's all very well but what about my race?'

'Uh...none.'

'None?' Rose frowned.

'None.' Reiko nodded again in confirmation. Rose laughed again.

'Fine, vampire. I'll be the first harpy to join your cause. But know this. If you set one foot wrong, I'll kill you.' Reiko smiled pleasantly at her in reply.

'Likewise.'