"Hey, Yaya? Could you help me for a sec?" Mem's voice came from above.
"Yeah, I'll be right there," she called.
Walking in, Yaya saw Mem's room looked as though a whirlwind had torn through it. Clothes, jewelry, and shoes were thrown around in disarray, and every single drawer and door seemed to be thrown wide open.
"What on earth are you doing?" she asked, worried at seeing the panicked expression on Mem's face.
She flushed and stammered a few incoherent responses, looking anywhere but at Yaya. "ZOMG! You're going on a date!" Yaya shrieked, eyes wide, "OMG OMG OMG who-" her voice was cut off as Mem hastily covered her mouth.
"Shh! I don't want Maya to find out!" Mem said, whispering. Then, her bedroom door was flung wide open as Maya herself flew in, already shouting.
"Did I hear the word date?!" she exclaimed.
Mem hit her forehead with the flat of her hand*, exasperated, as Yaya and Maya both proceeded to exclaim over her date and supposed boyfriend.
"Will you two shut it?" she said, mildly irritated, "It's not a date, someone hired me to do it." At least, that's the only way I can think of to explain it, she thought to herself with a mental sigh.
"Soo, you're a prostitute?" Maya asked, pretending to be serious. Mem's mouth fell open in astonishment as Yaya doubled up in laugher.
"You two are hopeless," Mem sighed, watching the two of them laugh, the corner of her mouth also twitching. As Yaya straightened, saw her face, then doubled up in laugher once more, Mem also started to laugh. This went in a kind of cycle, each one attempting to be serious, then seeing the other two laughing, and, unable to restrain themselves, bursting into laughter on e more, until all of them were out of breath
and crying from the laughter.
"Ahh," Maya sighed ages later, "But seriously, who is it?"
"Yeah yeah, who?" Yaya echoed.
"No one you two know! Geez. I have to go to a formal dance, but all I've really got is work type clothes. Black, black, and black again," Mem sighed.
"Hmm," Maya said, "Well we both have formal type clothes, but I'd be willing to bet you don't want to break Yaya's clothing."
"Hey! They're not... Okay they are that small," Yaya admitted grudgingly.
"Nah, I'd say mine are too big instead," Men joked.
Maya laughed and said, "Something no guy would ever say."
"Well I don't think anyone's happy with their moobs," Yaya said slyly.
Mem grinned and shook her head as Maya burst out laughing. They headed over to Maya's room, and Maya began pulling dresses out of her closet, holding them up, then tossing them onto her bed. Yaya interjected with a few comments, and eventually they found one they were both satisfied with. It was a dusty gold color mermaid style dress.
"Uhh, I'm not so sure about this one," Mem tried to object, to little avail. Ignoring her protests, Maya tossed her the dress.
"Try it on for size! You're going to love it!" Maya exclaimed.
Mem retreated to the bathroom and put on the dress. It was almost exactly her size, aside from a bit of tightness through thd bust, but she wasn't too sure about the front, which revealed a lot more cleavage than she would like, or the back, which was, for the most part, missing entirely. Turning, she moved her hair out of the way and checked in the mirror. Yup, her wings were very much visible. When angel wings were not in use, they looked like a pair of tattoos of chibi wings. Considering the likely company at the party, she figured revealing either color (as she had one white and one black) would prove disastrous. A quick spell later, and neither one was visible. Perfect, she thought.
Maya and Yaya both exclaimed over how gorgeous she looked, and Yaya let her borrow a pair of matching heels and a necklace, after which she forced Mem to sit still while she wrestled her hair into a more appropriate style. Finally, at four thirty, her friends gave her outfit the stamp of approval, and she went to pack her purse.
Unlike her outfit, this purse contained only the practical. Holy water (only effective against certain demons), daggers, throwing knives, a cure all poison antidote, her emergency cell phone, and a taser like device meant for quick stunning. She also put a bracelet on that contained an emergency transmitter, just in case she got in real trouble.
At five a black car (more of a limo, really) and a human male dressed all in black opened her door. Thirty minutes later, the car pulled up at the single most extravagantly overdone, gaudy house she had ever seen. It was at least ten stories tall, and two hundred feet or more across. Rose vines, and other flowers, obviously enhanced with fairy magic, bedecked the house and grounds. A huge fountain with what she could only assume was a winged, female, twenty foot demon statue dominated the scene.
"Thank you," she said to the driver as he helped her out. A pale skinned hand caught hers as she stepped out. Looking up, she caught Sasori's eye. He looked shocked, but covered it quickly.
Bowing, he took her hand again and kissed the back of it. "Hello, my princess."
"You clean up even better than I thought you would!" This snarky comment came from Arren, who hung out on the edge of her peripheral vision.
"You two are impossible. For a man who was stabbed only a few nights ago, you look awfully good," Mem said.
"I'm hardly human, my dear. Humans have to deal with inconvieniencies such as healing processes and waiting," Sasori reminded her.
Arren turned and strode off without another word. "That's not very polite," Mem said.
"Technically, he wasn't even supposed to come over here for that long, " Sasori said, leading her farther into the party, "As I'm sure you've noticed, there are a substantial amount of bodyguards hanging out on the outskirts of the party."
She had noticed this, even thought she hadn't commented on it. Sasori lead her inside, where the interior proved to be just as ostentatious as the outerior. It wasn't ten stories as she had originally assumed, but rather seemed as though three or even four stories had been combined into one huge story, with vaulted ceilings, floor to celing, and, in some places, wall to wall windows, were coupled with brilliantly colored rugs and furniture, as well as paintings. If all of the floors were as cavernous as this one, the entire building was more likely to be only three or four stories tall. The party was full of chatter, with large groups congregating together, some lounging on chairs and couches, others formed near giant buffet tables, which were stacked high with food that almost looked too elegant to eat. One room, with took up roughly two thirds of the floor, was entirely set aside for dancing, and a huge stairwell in the center of the far wall led up to higher floors. A band was set up to one side, playing classical, cheery pieces.
Mem was struck dumb by the enormity of the thing. "Who on earth has this much money to waste?"
Sasori chuckled, and said, "The most prominent member of our society?"
Oh gods, she groaned mentally, I'm at a party hosted by Satan himself. "Interesting," she said aloud.
"That's one word for it," Sasori said, "Of course, this isn't even the most extravagant party we've ever had here."
This is insane, she
thought to herself, does HQ even know about these? The most prominent of all demon society must be here, we could capture or kill them all so easily! Of course, Sasori and Arren would die as well, but that was an acceptable sacrifice.
"Shall we dance?" Sasori's voice broke into her thoughts, distracting her.
They went out onto the dance floor, and Mem was suddenly glad for her lessons in formal dancing. She wasn't sure how she felt about having a demon's hand on her hip, however. About twenty minutes of pleasant conversation and dancing later, she felt a pair of eyes on her back. At her next chance, she turned and saw Arren, standing among other bodyguards, observing the two of them, and those around them. Watching his eyes, she noticed that they were in constant motion, settling on her, then Sasori, to the couple across from them, Sasori, a woman in green, her, Sasori, a man nearby. He was good at his job, that's for sure.
When she got worn out, Sasori took her on a tour of the house and, after they grabbed some food, out into the gardens. There they wandered through several gardens, finally ending in a rose garden full of pink, red, and white flowers.
"You know, there's a legend about this place," Sasori said, "This garden is called the Garden of Seraphina. It's said that she was an incredibly powerful angel who seduced the strongest of demon kind, and one day brought him here. In this arbor-" for they had indeed reached an arbor-" it is said that she took out a dagger, and stabbed it through his heart. Then, as he bled out, she stabbed herself as well, for having sullied her pure self with the touch of a demon."
Something in his voice is off, Mem realized, and Arren is right behind me, with a dagger. "So, will we be reenacting this little scene here today? Although I would assume the goal is to leave you two alive and I myself dead instead."
Suddenly, before either of the demons on the arbor could respond, voices came up from behind them, Arren melted into the background, and Sasori grabbed her around the waist and held her close. He then steered her into a slow dance, similar to the ones from before, only with far less space in between them. In fact, there was no space between them.
"What on earth are you doing?" she exclaimed as quietly as possible.
"Just keep dancing, demonic angel, or this'll end badly for both of us," Sasori murmured, spinning her around.
She sucked in a sharp breath, but said nothing as a group of demons rounded the corner, talking about demon politics. One of them wolf whistled at the two of them, but both of them ignored him, staring at each other. Despite their apparent ease, both knew what would happen once they were out of sight. Mem remained silent only because she stood next to no chance of survival against a group of roughly ten demons of their strength, even with her training.
Making a few quick evaluations, she decided that Arren would be the main concern. He had training to rival her own, and would almost certainly be stronger than Sasori. As the voices faded out of hearing, she and Sasori kept apart, and Arren was once again at her back with a dagger to her neck.
"So, you two know my secret. Congratulations. Why do you need me dead?" she asked, trying to keep them talking. It would increase her chances of survival.
"We'll be the ones asking the questions, Arren said harshly. "Sasori, is the portal ready?"
"Yup, any time we need it," Sasori said, walking over to the opening of the arbor and peering into the darkness.
"No one's around, let's get out of here," Arren hissed.
"Were are we going?" Mem asked, truly concerned, "I have to get back soon!"
Sasori chuckled and turned to her, eyes cold. "Come now, do you really think you're getting out of this alive? Two men abduct a beautiful young lady from a party? Two demons abduct the demonic angel, the single most valuable chess piece on the entire board, and then return her?" Lifting up her chin so that she was looking into his eyes, he laughed, "Not a very believable story."
"No more time for games, Sasori," Arren said tersely.
Nodding, Sasori moved aside a potted plant to reveal a secret passage. Hadn't they mentioned a portal? Mem thought, confused.
They hurried her inside, then kept running. "That should keep him distracted," Arren said, pulling me along with him. Sasori grunted assent, and then disappeared. Mem suddenly realized that there was a portal directly in front of them, and tried to balk, but it was too late.
The portal took them to a darkened room in an apartment building. Arren and Sasori both froze, then slowly relaxed. Sasori sauntered over to the light switch, and the room was illuminated. It was a fancy apartment overlooking the same city she'd been in before entering to portal. In general, when provided with an opportunity, you should take your kidnap victim to a place unknown to them. As Arren's grip weakened, she tore herself away from him, and backed herself up so that the wall covered her back. These two needed to read the idiots guide to kidnapping. They already knew what she was, so she changed into her winged form, claws, sharp teeth and all, and prepared to fight for her life.
"Hey, hey, hey," Arren said, holding up his hands and dropping the knife, "We don't want a fight."
Mem's right hand darted for her opposite wrist, but her emergency contact bracelet was gone.
Arren held it up. "Looking for this?" She darted forward, but he tossed it to the ground and slammed his shoulder into her, knocking her backwards, and she hit her right shoulder on the ground and heard something move. Shit, she thought, getting back to her feet.
Mem darted for the kitchen, only to have Sasori block her way. She backed up, hissing.
"Mem, we have a perfectly good reason for what we've done," Sasori said, smooth as a snake. She growled and ignored him, eyes darting around the room for a weapon. No vases, chairs removed, table too unwieldy, and no paintings.
"Mem, will you listen to us please?" Arren asked, trying to approach her, only to have her dart at him, trying to get in a shot to his face or chest. He grabbed her wrist, and she responded by biting him, then darting backwards, only to run into Sasori, who grabbed her around the chest, pinning her arms. She kicked off the ground as hard as she could, and flipped the both of them backwards. She landed on all fours, and Sasori landed flat on his side, knocking his breath out.
"What the hell is wrong with the two of you?" Mem growled, "You abduct me, then expected me to just listen to you?"
"We had to!" Arren objected, standing between her and Sasori, "Otherwise he would've found out what we were doing!"
"He being?" Mem asked, curious despite herself.
"My father, of course," Sasori said, getting back to his feet.
"Your father?" Mem echoed.
Sasori grimaced and said, "The same one who threw that party."
Mem froze for just an instant in shock, but it was long enough for Arren to grab her from the side in a much more effective hold than Sasori had utilized. Muscles locked, she stared at Sasori, who looked away in what appeared to be anger. Sasori? A son of the Devil? No! She'd touched that! This was impossible! How had she not noticed, if this was true?
"Of course it's true," Sasori snapped, reading and correctly interpreting the disbelief on her face, "There's no other reason to lay claim to the title."
"Except that, of course, almost any demon would sacrifice anything for it to be true," Mem said, trying to break free of Arren's grip.
Arren merely held her tighter and said, "If you swear to listen upon your honor as a member of the Angel's Army, I'll let you go."
Curiousity made her bite back her initial acidic remark. She really was curious... "Fine. I promise to listen, but I make no promises as to believing it."
Arren cautiously let her go, and she went back into human form, wings shrinking, claws and fangs retracting. Rubbing her shoulder, which she had almost certainly just injured, she walked into the adjoining room, which contained a few couches, chairs, a huge flat screen TV, and as many video games and various consoles as had probably ever been created. She flopped down in a chair and prepared to listen to whatever ludacris tale these two were going to spin.
They entered the room cautiously, as though she was a wild animal that was barely contained. She made a tsking noise. How else had they expected her to react? With gratitude for being abducted?
They sat together on the sofa across from her, Arren tense (and with another knife), and Sasori just looking tired. She wished that they hadn't taken her purse from her earlier. It would've been nice to have her antidote with her, just in case they'd fed her anything poisonous. Oh well, she thought, I'm more likely to die by sudden dagger in the chest syndrome than poison.
"I'm listening," she said, settling in for a long story.
*#1 think face palm