It's the weekend again! For all of you affected by the blizzard (like me), hope you have a good way to stay safe and keep yourselves entertained. Maybe you could read a story or something...

Well, without further ado, Chapter Nine.

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Several minutes later, with my left arm wrapped in my undershirt and the unconscious vampire leaning on me, I made my way back to my apartment (leaving behind the disoriented homeless man and taxi driver), mercifully not too far away. I made sure to keep my arm tucked into my jacket, so as not to draw attention to the wound. As for the vampire, well, people would just think that she was a friend of mine, who had had too much to drink, or something.

That's not to say we didn't draw glances. People did double takes as we walked by, and Roxas eyed me strangely as I approached the apartment. "Is there a problem, Sora?" he asked.

I shook my head. "Friend here had a bit too much."

He raised an eyebrow. "On a Sunday?"

Oh, damn. Tomorrow was a workday, wasn't it? "She doesn't work on Mondays," I said.

"Really? What's her job?"

I redirected the conversation. "Look, I'd really like to get her up to my apartment," I said. "Make sure she isn't in any danger, and all that."

"Do you want me to call someone?"

"No, I'm fine, really. I don't think it's that serious, but a drunk friend is a drunk friend, right?"

"I suppose," he conceded. "Very well, Sora, but don't hesitate to ask for help if you need it."

Hah. That was a laugh. I had just very nearly been killed by a vampire, had ended up knocking her unconscious, and was now bringing her back to my apartment, for something that even I wasn't sure of. I needed help…but I wasn't likely to ask Roxas for it. "Right. Thanks."

"Anytime."

I dragged my captive into the building, and took her to the elevator, which, thankfully, was empty, to my floor and then to my apartment, eventually setting her down on my couch.

First, I acknowledged, I had to take care of my wound. A vampire bite was not too serious of an issue—contrary to popular belief, being bitten by a vampire did not make one also a vampire; that required actual transfusion of blood—but it was still a nasty wound. Fortunately, I had a large cache of medical supplies in my apartment, and I was able to treat and bandage the wound satisfactorily. I would need to take it easy for a few days, and my arm would not fully recover for a few weeks at least, but hopefully, it would not become infected, and would eventually heal (though it would leave a scar).

Second was the issue of the vampire. She was still unconscious, though she had been stirring slightly for the past few minutes. I needed a way to make sure that she wouldn't run away, or attack me while my guard was down. Several possibilities presented themselves to me, and I chose the ones that were easiest and would work the best. And so, ten minutes later, I sat on my couch, waiting for her to wake up. I had tied her hands behind her back and bound her ankles to a chair, so she couldn't move. As a couple more precautions, I had placed a silver bracelet on the apartment door handle (so she couldn't leave without touching it and hurting herself) and put on her one of my mother's necklaces: a special silver one covered with a layer of glass. It would make the vampire weaker, without actually hurting her.

My heart was racing—I had no idea what I was doing, or why exactly I was doing it. But I was doing it, and so I had no choice but to go ahead and hope for the best.

It took a while for the vampire to come to; I must have hit her harder than I thought. But, eventually, she groaned, and her eyelids slowly lifted. They lifted faster once she felt the rope around her wrists and ankles, and the silver on her neck. "Good, you're awake," I said, and her head snapped up to me.

"You!" she said. "What…where am I? What's going on?"

"You're in my apartment," I answered. "I knocked you out and brought you back here."

She blinked several times, and frowned, as if struggling to comprehend the situation. "What? Why? I thought you were going to shoot me."

"I thought so, too," I said. "But…"

I paused. I couldn't exactly put my reasoning into words. "You made me curious about you," I finally settled on.

"So you kidnapped me."

"Would you have preferred I pulled the trigger?"

She didn't answer. "You've certainly set me up well."

My eyes narrowed. "Don't think I've forgotten what you've done."

She pulled against her bonds, testing them. "You've got me tied up tight. What if I need to use the bathroom?"

I snorted. "Don't try to fool me. I know that that's a rare occurrence for your kind."

She lifted her eyebrows. "'My kind?' Well, you certainly know a lot about 'my kind,' Sora. Tell me, how did you get so knowledgeable?"

"Oh, I've been doing this for years. But if you think I'm going to give you a lot of information about myself, then you're sadly mistaken."

"Really?" She looked at me. "I could hypnotize you again."

I felt the effect of her eyes, and quickly looked away. No, no, not falling for that again, I thought. Remember my word. Kingdom. Kingdom, kingdom. "That's not going to happen," I said to her chin.

"We'll see about that."

"Yes, we will."

I saw her eyes drop down to her collarbone. "What's this necklace? It feels silver, but it doesn't hurt."

"It's one of my mother's necklaces," I said. "She loved silver, but she was allergic to it, so she couldn't wear any silver jewelry without getting a rash. So my father had this specially made for her. It looks silver, and it is, but there's a thin glass covering over it. So it'll weaken you without actually hurting you."

"I didn't know you cared."

I shrugged. "It seemed cruel to put an actual silver necklace on you."

She raised an eyebrow. "Cruel? When did you become so self-righteous?"

I scowled. "At least I have an ethical compass. Oh, one more thing about that necklace." I looked directly into her eyes for this—risky, but I wanted to get the point across. "That's a very special item to me, so if you do anything to it, I will forget all about being nice to you."

She snorted. "This is nice?"

"I spared your life, didn't I?"

"And you're being so hospitable right now."

I ran a hand across my face. "I'm not in the mood to deal with this…Well, if you're just going to be like this, then I'll just see you tomorrow." I stood up.

"You're not worried about me escaping?"

"I have you tied up, and restricted with a silver necklace. Then there's an actual, pure silver bracelet on my door handle, so even if you managed to escape your bonds, you wouldn't be able to get out."

"I could yell for help."

I nodded. "Right. Call attention to yourself, when the police have put an APB on you."

"I could still take you down with me."

"I'll claim that you forced your way into my apartment and fabricated evidence." I smiled. "I have a good friend who's a police officer and a good friend who's a high-profile investigator, so my credibility is pretty high up there."

She paused. "I could just come right after you."

I hesitated. "I'll take precautions."

"Oh? What kind?"

"The kind that I don't tell you about. Now good night."

With that, I turned and left the room, walking down to my bedroom. Mentally, I wasn't tired, but my body was telling me that it needed rest, and I thought I should give the vampire time to settle in her new situation.

After brushing my teeth and returning to my room for the final time, I shut the door, locked it, then moved my dresser in front of it, so that if she tried to open it, either the weight of the dresser would stop her, or the dresser would fall over and alert me. My gun I placed directly beside me, on my bedside table. With all that done, I laid myself down and tried to get to sleep. It didn't work, though. I kept thinking about the vampire, and what I was going to do with her. What was it I wanted? To find out if she still had some shred of humanity left in her? It was possible; there were accounts of people who had befriended vampires, but these were rare. Most vampires had been bloodthirsty creatures in conflict with humans, and had to be killed, or somehow stopped.

I turned over in my bed. So why did I think this one would be different? Something about her…well, I wasn't quite sure what. But I would find out. I was an investigator, wasn't I? I would find out all that I could about this vampire…and determine whether she had been worth sparing.

Didn't get much sleep that night; even with my precautions, I felt very uneasy with a vampire in the apartment. But nothing happened—when I checked on her the following morning, she hadn't moved a bit, though the sunlight streaming through the windows made her look more human than she had last night, and made her black clothes look lighter. "Sleep well?" she asked, smiling smugly.

"I've had worse nights," I replied, and went off to shower. After I did, I made sure to put my contacts in, so I wouldn't have to worry about hypnotization. "How was your night?" I asked when I came back, cleaned, dressed, and with the bandages on my left arm changed.

She made a face. "Boring and uncomfortable."

"Tough."

She raised an eyebrow. "I thought you were supposed to be nice to me."

"'Nice' is relative," I responded. "I am willing to let you watch TV while I'm gone for the day."

"You're leaving me alone again?"

"Like I said, I'm not worried about you escaping. Besides, I have work to do."

She narrowed her eyes. "If you're just going to keep leaving me here, what was the point of kidnapping me in the first place?"

"Oh, we'll get around to talking," I said. "But that will have to come later." I grinned. "Something to look forward to."

"Can't wait." Her voice was dripping with sarcasm.

It was my turn to narrow my eyes. "When did you become such a smartass?"

"Well, it was after this guy kidnapped me, for purposes that he hasn't yet divulged. And he keeps leaving me alone for some reason. It's as if I make him uneasy."

"You? Make someone uneasy? I can't imagine a murderous vampire doing that."

As I made my comment, I saw a flash of pain in her eyes. "Sorry," I said.

She looked up. "For what?"

"I thought I…never mind."

I went off to prepare breakfast. As I did, I heard the vampire call out to me, "You know, I'm going to need sustenance. Got any enemies you want to disappear?"

She was taunting me, I could tell. "You'll survive while I'm gone," I called back. "And don't worry, I'm not going to let you starve."

"Oh, goody. I'll be able to see whatever it is you have planned for me."

"You most certainly will."

After eating, I grabbed my things and got ready to leave. "Hey, didn't you say something about letting me watch TV?" she called.

Oh, yeah. "Right." I returned to the living room, picked up the remote, and turned on the TV. "What do you want?"

She shrugged. "What's on?"

"Dunno. Here." I walked around behind her and put the remote in her hands. "You can change the channels if you like."

"Which one's the channel button?"

"This one."

I moved the remote so that the button was right below her thumb. As I did, my fingers brushed against her hand, and she flinched. I frowned. Why was she so averse to my touch?

Well, I could think of several reasons. And if I was lucky, I would get to find out some of them later.

"There you go," I said, straightening up. "I'll be back this afternoon."

"Okay, honey."

Again with the relentless sarcasm… "Have fun, dear," I said, playing along.

She scowled; I guess she could only take the thought of us being together for so long, in this case, one remark. "And remember," I said, walking to the door, "don't try anything."

"Don't you have work to go to?"

"Yes." And I left.

A new problem presented itself as I went to work; what was I going to tell Donald and Goofy? On the one hand, they might want me to turn her in, and something told me that wasn't the best thing to do. On the other hand, knowing that she was tied up in my apartment could make them feel safer, knowing that she wasn't still out there, after them. And they could help me if I had problems. Besides, they were my friends, and I shouldn't keep secrets from them.

I took a breath. Very well, then, I would tell them. I just hoped they wouldn't react too poorly.

I got to the office a little after eight, and found both my partners already there. "Sora! Good to see you, at last!" said Donald as I came in.

Great. Another smartass. "Sorry," I said, yawning.

"No worries," Goofy assured me. "Rough night?"

I nodded. "Yeah." An amusing thought presented itself to me. "I was kept up pretty late."

"What with?" asked Goofy, looking concerned.

I grinned. "Well, actually, it was a woman."

Donald nearly fell out of his chair. "What?" he said incredulously. "Wait…Sora, are you saying you've…"

At the sight of his expression, I burst out laughing. "No," I said when I had recovered. "No, not like that. I just wanted to see what your reaction would be."

He glowered at me. "Damn it, Sora, don't do that again."

"What woman, then?" asked Goofy. "Was it the vampire?"

"Oh, of course," said Donald. "Worried about her?"

"Yeah," I said hesitantly. "But…" I sighed and sat down at my desk.

"But what?" asked Goofy. He noticed my arm. "What happened to your arm? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. But…" I looked at the pair of them. "Okay, guys, I'm about to tell you something big, and I need you to promise me not to freak out, okay?"

"Sure," said Goofy.

"Something big?" said Donald.

I nodded. "I don't think we have to worry about her coming after us for the time being."

"Why not?" asked Goofy.

I took a deep breath. "Because she's tied up in my apartment."

Stunned silence met this confession. "She's…what?" said Donald.

"I kidnapped her and brought her to my apartment."

Another pause. "You're serious," said Donald.

"Dead serious."

"Why? Wh…" He ran a hand through his hair. "Sora, that doesn't make sense. Why would you kidnap her? What happened?"

So, I told them the story, of how, after leaving Donald's, I had been picked up by the hypnotized taxi driver, who had brought me to the alleyway where she had met me. I told them how we had fought, how she had wounded me but how I had managed to defeat her, and got her at gunpoint. "But you didn't shoot her?" said Goofy.

"No," I said. "Right when I was about to, she told me to do it, to go ahead and shoot her, like she wanted me to. She said…" I thought back to the previous night. "She seemed to imply that she wanted to die, that she thought it was right. She called vampires 'killing machines,' that should have died a long time ago, but were…I think stuck in eternal life. And I guess it really got to me. I felt…pity, I guess, and I wanted to know more about her. So I knocked her out and took her back to my apartment."

Donald looked skeptical. "You sure you're feeling okay, Sora? Your kingdom still standing?"

"Yes, my kingdom still stands tall," I responded. "She didn't hypnotize me."

Goofy looked interested. "So, what are you going to do with her?"

"Well…I haven't figured that out entirely just yet. But something told me that this was the right thing to do."

"You're sure she hasn't influenced you at all?" said Donald. "Or that there are some remnants of her hypnotizing you earlier?"

I frowned. "Well, I can't say that for certain—is there any way of knowing for sure? But my instinct tells me to keep her, and I've learned to trust my instinct."

"I think he's right," said Goofy, looking at Donald. "Maybe we should give this a shot. See where it leads."

"But this isn't just some harmless experiment," argued Donald. "This is a deadly vampire we're talking about. What if she gets free?"

"How would she be able to?" I asked. "I've tied her up tightly, and given her a silver necklace to weaken her."

"A silver necklace?" said Goofy. "Wouldn't that hurt her?"

I shook my head. "It's my mom's glass-covered silver necklace." I had shown it to both of them on a previous occasion. "The silver essence still weakens her, but touch alone isn't enough to cause her much pain."

Donald cocked his head to one side. "You've thought this out, haven't you?"

"Not a whole lot, actually. It's just what came to me after I took her back to my apartment."

"So you tied her up," said Goofy. "What then? Is she still unconscious?"

I shook my head, and told them of the two conversations we had had in my apartment. "Seems like a delightful soul," said Donald after I had finished.

"Remind you of anyone?" I asked, looking pointedly at him.

"Hey, I'm not that bad."

"You come close sometimes."

Ever the peacemaker, Goofy interrupted our argument. "So, you're not sure what to do with her now?"

I sighed. "Not really. I guess I want to find out more about her. She's…intriguing, somehow."

"Not to mention murderous," said Donald.

His comment brought back the memory of how the vampire had reacted earlier that morning, when I had used the same word to describe her. "Is it possible she's remorseful about those?" I asked. "I thought, this morning, when I made a similar comment, that it hurt her."

"You mean, hurt her feelings?" asked Goofy. "That's kinda sad."

"Forgive me if I'm not overflowing with sympathy," said Donald dryly.

"Well," I said, "we'll just have to see how things play out. Now, Pence is coming over today, right?"

I could tell the other two were still interested in the matter of the vampire, but we had business to take care of, and they were forced to let it drop for the moment. "Yeah, at eleven," said Donald.

"Then we'd better get ready what we're going to say to him."

Goofy sighed. "Sometimes I don't like lying to our clients."

"I never like it," I said. "Unfortunately, it's a necessary evil."

Pence arrived a few minutes before eleven. "Good morning, Pence," I said when he entered, keeping my wounded arm concealed, so as to not draw attention to it.

He smiled broadly. "Good morning, Mr. Parker." He took a seat, still smiling, seemingly lost for words.

"How's Hayner holding up?" I asked.

"Great! He's received a blood transfusion, and he'll be in the hospital for a little while longer, but he's awake and reverting to his old self."

I smiled. "Great to hear."

"All thanks to you. Mr. Parker, I still can't thank you enough."

"Well, like I said, I'm glad I was able to save him."

He nodded. "A lot of his friends are really happy, too. In fact…" He reached into his pocket and withdrew a sheet of paper that looked like a check. "Hayner's pretty popular, so yesterday, we decided to take a collection, as a bonus for you. I felt you deserved more than the paltry sum I was going to pay."

I blinked. "Oh, I hope you didn't feel like you had to—"

"No, no, I did," argued Pence. "You probably don't take a whole lot of cases, and mine only gave you a bit more money. And you've got three people to support, here." He indicated Donald and Goofy. "We felt this was only fair."

He stood up and handed the check to me. I glanced at it, and my mouth fell open. "Pence, this is too much. You guys are college students. You need money."

"We can get it," said Pence. "I've got a job working on campus. Besides, we didn't have to give up too much; we just got a lot of people to contribute. The check and the money it is for are yours, and we're not taking it back."

I had to admit, I was touched. "Thank you. You're very generous."

"Not generous enough," said Pence. "You saved Hayner's life, and no amount of money can ever equal that."

I smiled and pocketed the check. "Well, the message comes across anyways."

"Good." His smile faded. "Do you know if they'll catch the woman who did it?"

Great. Now things were uncomfortable. "I hope so," I lied. "The police have been alerted, and have sent out a description of her. It'll be hard for her to hide. But, hopefully, she'll have given up on her blood-draining career."

Pence nodded. "Some of us are calling her the Vampire Doctor." He grinned. "It's a little cheesy, but it's still popular."

Hah. If only they knew how close to the truth they were. "She is reminiscent of one," I agreed. "Maybe she even thought of herself as like a vampire." I made a face. "Let's just hope she didn't drink any of the blood, though."

"Yeah." He looked at his watch. "Well, I need to get back to campus."

I stood up. "Have a safe journey back."

"Thank you. And, one final time…"

I held up my hand. "Don't worry, I know."

Pence chuckled. "Okay." We shook hands. "Good bye, then."

"Bye, Pence. I hope the rest of your college career is a good one."

"I think it will be." And then, he left.

Goofy smiled. "Another satisfied customer."

I laughed. "Though I suppose it's best he didn't know the truth," I said.

"Definitely," agreed Donald.

"But we've still got the truth to deal with," I said.

Goofy nodded. "That's what we do."

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All right, there you have it. What'd you think? What will come of this unusual arrangement? Only one way to find out for sure...but speculation is enjoyed, too.