Firstly, I HAVE to apologise for not updating. I've had my HSC exams and haven't even had time to breathe, let alone write enough to update.
However, to make it up to people, here's another two chapters!
Virgil was enjoying himself.
Having someone to control and threaten had always appealed to him. It was like when he was little; he and his brother would catch all of the spiders in the garden and keep them in jars, feeding them flies and watching them until they finally died. Virgil watched the back of the Lycan – Celeste – as she shouldered through the street crowd and wondered how long she'd last.
As they approached a small bookshop with boarded up windows on the outskirts of the market, Virgil became aware of the fact that they were being followed. He didn't say anything to Celeste… seeing how long it took for her to notice. She suddenly stopped at a jewelry stall, pretending to be interested in a particularly ugly necklace,
"I thought you'd like to know that you're being followed." She muttered.
"I know."
"Since we passed that souvenir shop three blocks back." There was a pause.
"I know." Virgil said smoothly, when in fact he hadn't noticed them that early.
She didn't have to know that.
"We have to lose them. There's no way I'm leading them to the Den." She said it firmly, though kept her eyes on the ugly necklace as she turned it in her hands.
Virgil laughed as if she'd made a joke and leaned into whisper in her ear, putting a strong arm around her waist. To anyone watching, they looked like young couple on holidays.
"Not a problem. Do exactly as I say. I want to find out why trouble seems to follow you everywhere you go, Werewolf."
Celeste's eyes glittered angrily, but she smiled emptily and slid her own arm around his waist and followed him away from the jewellers stall.
The watcher stayed in the shadow of the cramped buildings, trying to avoid the sunlight if they could. They watched the two at the jewellery stall leave, then resume their path along the crowded road. They hadn't noticed him yet.
They turned a corner, into an alleyway. Perfect. Rounding the corner, the watcher frowned. Gone? Cautiously, he climbed down from the wall like a human spider and landed on the stone pathway with a barely audible creak of leather. He was wrapped in black, wearing a mask and goggles.
His green eyes scanned the narrow road, there was a crossing a few meters ahead… had they turned down another street? As the moments went by, the more he thought that perhaps these two weren't as clueless as he'd first thought. They were good… very good.
Drawing two thin silver Sai's from his back, he pressed his back to the wall and started edging forward towards the narrow intersection. After a moment's pause, he clenched his Sais firmly and leapt around the corner to face… nothing.
"What the fuck?" He looked behind him. Nothing. How could two - whatever they were - disappear into thin air?
He was about to double back and return to the crowded street when a tiny piece of concrete 'tink'ed down the edge of a wall. He brought his Sais up in time to catch the massive force of Werewolf claws baring down in him. He was slammed onto the ground, pinned by the weight of the creature. It drew back it's lips, snarling and baring it's teeth.
"I don't like being spied on." It snarled.
"Easy Fido." A blue-coated man leapt down from the roof he'd been perched on. The wolf looked up at him maliciously at the jibe, but was silent. His lightning-blue eyes examined the Watcher critically.
"Why were you following us?" The wolf growled. The pinned man didn't bat an eyelid as the huge jaws snapped inches from his face, and stayed silent.
"You know, I can't exactly guarantee that I can stop her from eating you." The white-haired man's steely gaze boared into their prisoner's eyes.
Suddenly getting a foot under the wolf, he threw it off him with one leg. Tumbling through the air, the wolf slid across the street.
"I don't respond well to threats." He leapt to his feet and threw a Sai at the Demon. He'd barely blinked before the Demon caught it deftly in one hand. The Demon smiled.
"Here, I'll swap you." He tossed something large and metal. Catching it, the black-clad man dropped it with a sudden hiss of pain. The silver cross clattered onto the stone of the street and flared white, momentarily blinding him – dispite his goggles. Shielding his eyes, he blinked the spots from his vision. He turned, yelping in pain as more crosses flared before his eyes… rosary beads. The Werewolf, now a young woman, punched him solidly in the jaw with a crunch and grabbed him by the throat.
"So, Vampire… are you going to answer my question or not?" She squeezed her fingers tightly. The Vampire gasped and fell to his knees.
"Not." He choked. The Werewolf started to say something, but was cut off by a hand on her shoulder.
"Allow me." The Demon interjected. He twisted his fingers into the Vampire's black bodysuit and threw him over his head with one arm, using the other to draw the sword concealed inside his coat. As the Vampire hit the street, he stepped crushingly on the Vampire's arms and laid the edge of the blade against the Vampire's neck.
"Are you going to answer the question or not?" He snarled, his voice ringing off the stones as lightning cracked and spun around his limbs. The Vampire licked the blood from his lips.
"Fuck you." He spat.
"Alright. Since asking nicely doesn't help…" The Demon stabbed his sword through the Vampire's arm. The silver hissed against the Vampire's flesh and he caught a cry of pain between his teeth.
"Were you sent by the same person who sent that lovely Hellhound last night?" The Demon asked impassively. The Vampire didn't reply.
"High pain threshold, huh? Why don't we try something a little more natural… like sunlight."
He sliced open the bodysuit across the Vampire's chest, for a split second baring it's skin to sunlight. With the Demon standing on his arms, he couldn't cover the opening in the suit and screamed in pain as the flesh burned under the sunlight. The Demon moved back over him, casting a shadow over the cut.
"Now, let's try this again."
"Nobody sent me!" The Vampire said at last. The Demon smiled,
"Finally, now we're getting somewhere."
Without warning, he pulled the sword out of the Vampire's arm and threw it behind him, embedding it into the wall barely an inch from the Lycanthrope's nose. She'd been silently edging her way along the wall behind the Demon whilst he was preoccupied with the Vampire.
"What have I told you about running away?" He turned to look at her. She growled wolfishly from deep in her throat and slinked back from the sword, glaring at him.
"Now where were we? Oh yes, if nobody sent you, then why are you following us? You don't strike me as a thief."
The Vampire was silent again. The Demon moved out of the sun, making the open wound sizzle in the sunlight.
"I saw you both last night." He hissed in pain. He relaxed as the Demon's shadow fell over him again. "In St. Peter's Square. You butchered those people." He clenched his fists. The Demon sighed tiredly,
"Do you know you're the second person to accuse me of that in 24 hours?"
"And what happened to the first one? You tortured and killed them too?"
"No. She's quite alive and busy being very useful." He jerked his head at the Werewolf, who was leant against a wall and still glaring at him sulkily.
"As much as I hate to say it." She said poisonously, "He's not the one that killed all those people. It was a Hellhound."
"Oh really?" The Vampire sneered, "I don't remember seeing any massive dogs last night except for you and your little unholy friend."
"I think what you caught was the end of our fight… after I kicked the Hellhound's ass across the Square." The Demon smiled to himself.
"How do I know you're not lying through your teeth, Demon?" The Vampire spat. The Demon shrugged,
"You don't. You can ask her though, she's Catholic… I think there's something about telling the truth in her religion."
The Vampire looked at the Werewolf. She ground her teeth then nodded slowly, shooting daggers at the Demon's back. The Vampire gritted his teeth.
"Okay," He said finally, "I'll say I believe you… for now." The Demon stepped off his arms, allowing the Vampire to cover the cut in the bodysuit as he sat up stiffly.
"I suggest you run back to whatever rat-hole you slinked out of, Vampire. I have better things to do than waste my time with bloodsucking assassins."
The Vampire backed up a wall,
"Oh don't worry. The next time we meet, you won't be lamenting the lost time. You'll be wishing you'd had killed me when you had the chance." He jumped across to the building on the other side of the narrow street and disappeared onto the rooftop.
"And that's the end of that." The Demon sheathed his sword, "Now where were we?"
The Lycanthrope sighed and started walking away.
"This way."
From the rooftops, a pair of glittering green eyes watched them leave, then silently started to follow them once more.