Still Waters 3, Book 2, Chapter 23: Vampires Again?
Tuesday, July 14th, Midday, Somewhere in Mundus Magicus
'Idiots!'
The rather attractive young woman stalked down the echoing hallways of the large manor house she had appropriated after the death of her sire a few years before. Heavy drapes of some dark purple material hung over the windows let in narrow beams of sunlight, while the occasional marble statue or suit of armor imported from Mundus Vetus stood seemingly at random in small alcoves or along the walls, each placed with precision to best enhance the artful gloom of the place.
'Those...those monsters are responsible for the capture of not only Zeph's servant, but Jonus too! Horrible! And for the council to let them get away with it? Unthinkable...!'
A frown marred the young woman's rather cute face as she turned down another hallway, this one decorated with large portraits hung along the walls. No one who had visited the recently renamed Honeydew Manor seemed to know who exactly the portraits represented, and it was highly unlikely the current owner knew either; the portraits were all of different styles, and few of the subjects held any resemblance to each other in features or dress other than a near-universal similarity in the stern, disapproving expression on each face, no doubt chosen for that very reason.
'I cannot let them get away with this!' Sir Alexander was right, something needed to be done! It was an affront to, well, everything she thought vampires should stand for! Someone needed to do something about it, and who better than her?
'I will make you pay, Evangeline A. K. Springfield!' the woman thought as she finally stopped in front of a meticulously hand-carved wooden door. 'Wait, no, it's McDowell. Springfield is...who is Springfield again? Wasn't there some kind of Taco guy, too...?' She couldn't quite recall the details, but he was supposed to be related to some group of war heroes or outlaws or something twenty-something years before. Maybe. Possibly.
The woman shook her head to clear it and heaved the wooden door open, revealing the chamber she had used as her bedroom since before her sire had died. She snapped her fingers and a ball of light sprang into being in the middle of the ceiling. Inside the room, frilly pink sheets covered the bed, while hand painted bright white and yellow stars dotted the ceiling and a thick lavender carpet covered the floor. The furniture was all painted in bright colors, and the large oval mirror attached to the desk in which she kept her journals had star stickers pressed into place around the edges.
Beatrice Honeydew, number twenty-four among the Great Vampire Lords, the youngest member ever at her current age of one hundred and seven, might have loved projecting the appearance of a so-called 'classic vampire' to the public almost as much as number one among the Great Vampire Lords Zeph Castor, but she didn't see that as any reason to deny herself the things she liked when in private.
"Someone has to show them that that's not right!" she muttered to herself as she flounced over to her desk and pulled open a drawer. She pawed through the odds and ends in it until she came up with a yellow wand with a star on the end, and tossed it over onto her bed. She shut that drawer and opened another to reveal a large leather-bound book kept shut with a lock and chain. This, too, was thrown onto her bed. She riffled through several other drawers, tossing the occasional item onto her bed.
"I'll show them," she mumbled as she stood up and went to the large wardrobe situated in the back corner of the room. She flung the doors open and grabbed several changes of clothing, which she threw onto the bed. "How dare they hurt Jonus! He was my friend...!" She paused upon spotting the somewhat frilly black dress she often wore when traveling, then threw that, too, onto the bed, followed by the pointy black hat that she had always secretly thought of as her 'witch hat'. She made sure the lavender ribbon she had tied around it was properly secured, then stuffed a stack of cards with complex magic circles and diagrams drawn on them between the ribbon and the hat itself.
She turned back to the wardrobe and dug through the random castoff items that filled the bottom of it until she came upon the small knapsack she had personally enchanted into a bag of holding and began stuffing the various items on her bed into it except for the wand, the hat, and the black dress.
"And the others, how could they abandon Jonus and Carrick?" she demanded of the room at large as she snatched her riding broom out of the corner. "That's just short sighted!"
She quickly slipped out of the dress she had worn to the most recent meeting of the Great Vampire Lords and into the black traveling dress she liked so much. She put on a small white apron over it and stood in front of the big mirror hanging on her wall for a moment, admiring the dress she wore, then brushed her golden hair out of her face and put on the black hat. She tugged the brim down just enough to cover one eye and held it in place, and couldn't help but grin upon seeing her reflection. "This looks so cool...!" she squealed. "Just wait! They won't know what hit 'em!" She went over to her bed and took up the small knapsack and the broom, and hurried over to the door. She paused to take a quick glance around the room, then darted out into the hall in excitement, letting the door slam behind her. A few seconds passed, then she opened the door again and snapped her fingers, making the magic ball of light on the ceiling vanish. The door slammed again, and the room was left in darkness.
Tuesday, July 14th, Afternoon, Mahora
Takahata T. Takamichi stood up from the table and looked down at the papers that covered it from one end to the other. On particularly bad days, like the one he had just spent, the paperwork could easily become overwhelming. Still...
He couldn't help but grin as he lit up a cigarette and took a long draw on it. He blew out a cloud of cigarette smoke and wandered over to the refrigerator. A quick glance inside was all it took to find the plate of yesterday's lasagna Shizuna had left for him. His grin widened slightly as he took it out and set about heating it up in his microwave.
Things were going well between him and Shizuna; they had been for a while. He knew she was waiting for him to 'pop the question', as Seruhiko put it, but he still had those nagging doubts... He shook his head to clear it. The past was the past; as terrible as it had been, despite the things he had done, despite the fact that he had let his mentor and others die...he felt it was finally time to move on. This revelation had been a long time coming, but with the help of Negi-kun, Asuna-kun, and the rest, those old wounds had for the most part healed. He wasn't ready yet, but now he knew that, in time... He looked back down at the table, still covered in papers.
Ever since his promotion to Head of Special Defense for the campus and city, he had had less time to interact with the students, but every now and then, on days like today... He took up one of the test papers he was grading for Negi from the table and grinned as he read some of the answers the student had written. Judging by her rather amusing attempts to translate the sentences provided into English, it appeared that Sasaki Rina had little grasp of the English language, just like her big sister Sasaki Makie had had when she had been that age. He tapped the ashes from his cigarette into an ashtray and headed for the microwave. Five seconds later, it beeped, signaling that his day-old lasagna was ready. He removed it from the microwave and cleared a space on the table for it, and continued grading Negi's class's tests as he ate.
Beatrice heaved a sigh of relief as she stepped through the portal into the hot, humid air of Cambodia. She didn't do it out of any appreciation for the tropical humidity that assaulted her senses, but rather for the fact that her admittedly clumsy attempt to bribe one of the gate operators had actually worked. She paused for a moment, one hand in a fist on her hip, the other holding her broom. She looked around and took in a deep breath. She immediately regretted it; the air was full of smoke and chemical smells, and it stunk like that chicken farm she had once crashed into back in Mundus Magicus, only times a hundred, nowhere near as clean as the air over there. But that didn't matter! No, she had finally come back to Mundus Vetus! Back to Earth! The place of her birth! Well, granted, halfway around the planet and a hundred years or so from her place of birth, but still. She was back on Earth!
Beatrice grinned and stepped aside to allow more room for the rest of the travelers that had made up the group she had been assigned to as they came through the gate to stand milling about in the courtyard in front of her. From what she could see, it was quite a large complex; the temple itself sat in the middle...or at least, she assumed it was the temple. It was the tallest structure she could see, anyway. 'Ah, what am I doing? I have somewhere to go!' she thought to herself as she dug around in her pack for the illustrated atlas she had brought along. She quickly had it out and began searching through the pages to find a map of the country she was in. "Angkor...Angkor..." she muttered as she ran her finger down the list of locations until she found it. "Angkor Wat! Okay, so I'm here. Now, where's Mahora? In what was it, Japan? Yeah, that was it..." She flipped pages until she found one that featured the island nation of Japan. It took several minutes of searching to find any mention of Mahora, but soon enough, she had located that city as well. "Now, for the big map..." She flipped around until she found a map of Southeast Asia, and frowned after a moment. Japan wasn't there. She flipped pages until she found a map of the Indian Subcontinent. Again, Japan wasn't there. "Um..." She flipped more pages until she came to a map of the entire continent of Asia, and found herself staring.
"Um, miss? Is something wrong?"
Beatrice looked up to see one of the gate guides giving her a concerned look. She blinked. "T-t-two..."
"Two...?" the woman asked, wondering what the crazy blonde lady was talking about.
Beatrice looked back down at her atlas. "T-two thousand s-s-seven hundred m-miles..."
The gate guard blinked at her. "...excuse me?"
Beatrice looked up at her, her tear filled eyes threatening to overflow. "T-t-twenty seven hundred miles...! Between here and Mahora! Oh what do I do, what do I do?! I can't fly that on my own, I can't! I'll pass out over the ocean and drown...!" She didn't bother to think about the absurdity of a vampire of her caliber actually drowning; the unbelievable distance from her present location to her target had left her stunned.
"Oh! I'm sorry, did you take the wrong gate?" the gate guide asked, helping Beatrice to her feet. "Don't worry; we'll get you where you need to go. That's our job as the Inter-World Gate Guide Force!"
About six hours later, a tearful Beatrice Honeydew climbed down off the airplane at the Tokyo International Airport. She was hustled through the check in process by an agent of the local magic association who had been called before her arrival, and brought to a waiting cab, which promptly set off for Mahora.
Beatrice sat in the back of the cab, humming a happy tune to herself as she thanked any god she could think of for the timely help from the Gate-Guard-Whatever-They-Called-Themselves, when suddenly she recalled her reason for coming to Mundus Vetus.
"Ah..."
She looked nervously at the cab driver, but to her relief he seemed to be engaged in a passive-aggressive 'You first, no you first, no I insist' contest with another cab. She let out a sigh of relief and dug into her knapsack. A moment later, she pulled out her journal and started writing.
Tuesday, July 14th, Evening
Hello Journal! It's been a rough day so far; first I almost got caught bribing one of the gate operators! Scary, right? They've got laws against letting vampires go to Earth, but I have connections! Jonus told me about this one man he knows who can get anyone through the gates, no matter what they are. Very cool. But after that, I ended up coming to Earth for the first time since I was turned, but I ended up three thousands miles from my target! Luckily, some nice people from some Gate-Guide-something-or-other helped me out and put me on an airplane to Japan. For free! They were very nice; I think I'll write a nice letter to whoever their bosses are.
Anyway, I'm in Japan now! The man at the airport helped me out a lot with directions and money and stuff, and now I'm riding in a cab and I'm already halfway to Mahora! Don't worry, I'll save you, Jonus!
"Anything new?" Takahata asked as he strolled into the room deep within the administration building that served as the headquarters for both the Special Defense unit and the Special Operations Unit to begin his shift. The room itself wasn't particularly impressive; filing cabinets lined one wall, while a dozen or so computer desks were strategically placed around the room; most of them were currently empty, and would stay that way unless an incident occurred. The only truly notable feature, in fact, was the screen showing a large map of Mahora on the far wall; the map was entirely digital, could be altered with any number of overlays, and if necessary could be zoomed in to the point where one could read the hours of operation on a business's front door. He nodded to the room's occupants. "Toko. Gandolfini. Seruhiko."
Kuzunoha Toko, head of the Special Operations Unit, greeted him with a nod of her own, as did her second in command, Gandolfini.
"A little more restless than usual," Seruhiko, a member of the Special Defense Unit, said. "But there's nothing unusual."
"Any new arrivals?" Takahata asked as he strolled over to his desk, eying the stack of paperwork in his inbox.
Seruhiko typed on his keyboard for a moment before looking back up at Takahata. "Three D-rank mages , two C-rank and one A-rank, all in a group together from France. They're here for business. As for those who are leaving, the Stride family, minus Negi's student Kara, of course, are planning on catching the eleven o'clock plane back to the States, Zed left to visit family in Okinawa and will be gone for two weeks, and, of course, most of Negi-kun's harem is with him in Evangeline's resort. From what I understand, they're planning on staying overnight until an hour before school starts tomorrow morning."
Gandolfini looked up from his own computer and whistled. "Half a month's worth of training; that's more than they usually do in one shot. Preparation for his leave of absence this summer?"
Takahata nodded, deciding to let Seruhiko's 'harem' comment go. "He's been under considerable stress recently; I have no doubt he needed some extra time to recover before his trip."
Seruhiko snorted in amusement. "So, he's in Evangeline's resort with his whole harem for 'recovery'. Note the air quotes," Seruhiko said. "'Recovery'," he repeated as he made air quotes again when no one commented. The other three just looked at him, and he sighed. "Okay, okay...sorry. It sounded better in my head," he said as he turned back to his computer. "Excuse me if I seem a little bitter."
Takahata grinned slightly. Seruhiko often complained about how everyone seemed to be paired up with someone else except him...the fact that women seemed to avoid him probably had something to do with the way he and Ninomiya-sensei looked at each other any time they were in the same room. He sighed, wondering if the others would complain if he lit up a cigarette. He decided not to when a quick glance around the room showed a distinct lack of ashtrays. No doubt that was Shizuna's doing; she had been trying to get him to quit smoking, or at least cut down. All it took was one look at Toko's gleaming eyes to realize she wanted to say something however, so he decided to take advantage of the opportunity to distract himself from his nicotine craving and relieve the somewhat awkward feel of the room after Seruhiko's 'recovery' comment. "Did you have something you wanted to say, Toko?"
The woman beamed at the room's three other occupants. "Look!" she said, taking something out of her pocket and holding it up to catch the light.
Gandolfini whistled again while Seruhiko groaned and dropped his head to his desk. "First Akashi, Takahata's only a matter of time, and now Toko, too! Is everyone getting married but me?!" he grumbled.
Gandolfini smirked slightly at the other teacher. "I hear Ninomiya-sensei still has a thing for you."
Seruhiko immediately quieted down and looked regretful. "It would never work. She's beautiful, intelligent, fun to be with, and has many of the same interests, but she doesn't know about magic...we're from two different worlds-"
Takahata tuned out Seruhiko's familiar star-crossed lovers spiel about why he and Ninomiya-sensei couldn't get together, even though everyone around them could tell they'd get along wonderfully. It was just a matter of time, really, and Takahata didn't see any reason why Ninomiya-sensei shouldn't be told the truth about magic, either; she was calm, sensible, and above all trustworthy. In addition to that, he had run a background check on her one day during a routine check of the teaching staff and other personnel, and though it had been a couple centuries back, there were several powerful mages in her family tree. He had no doubt she could be trained to become a mage, should she wish it. In any case, back to business. He moved in closer for a better look at Toko's engagement ring. He hesitated to admit it, even to himself, but he knew little of matters like this and could use every bit of information he could get. "When did this happen?"
Toko smiled, radiating joy. "Last night! He took me out to the premier of that new movie and a candlelight dinner at that fancy restaurant downtown by the museum, and proposed!"
For lack of any idea of how else he was supposed to respond, Takahata nodded, his eyes on the ring. The diamond on it was really quite large; Toko's boyfriend—no, he thought, Toko's fiance—must be a wealthy man. He knew the woman had had trouble with relationships in the past; she tended to try and hide the details of her job, which only resulted in angry boyfriends for the most part. He honestly hadn't expected her current one to last much longer. "Congratulations, Toko. Have you settled on a date yet?"
The woman shook her head. "Not yet, but I was thinking some time in the spring, maybe April? Or-"
Takahata tuned her girlish happiness out for a moment, making sure to nod at the right times as she gushed, while he thought again about Shizuna. They had been dating for several years already, and though he knew how she felt about him, he still had nagging doubts about whether or not he was worthy of-
"-and one of those arches with all the flowers on it you know the white ones-"
Takahata tried to ignore Toko's girlish squealing and resigned himself to a long night.
Tuesday, July 14th, Night, Mahora
Beatrice Honeydew paused on the street corner at the crosswalk, riding broom in hand and knapsack on her back, and frowned.
There was a magic barrier, right in front of her, pale, flickering, and almost transparent. She glanced around at the others waiting for the light to change, but no one else seemed to be aware of it.
"Hmm..." she said, leaning closer. Beatrice had never been very good with barriers other than blasting her way through them. She thought this one probably wasn't one of those physical-types that were always so much fun to blast, but if it wasn't, what was it? Some kind of scanning barrier? Some kind of—her breath caught in her throat. Some kind of alarm barrier? Something that would lock her in place, maybe, or zap her? Could barriers do that...? She didn't know, but she wasn't about to discount the possibility. What would happen if she went through it? Unfortunately, the choice was taken from her as the crossing light turned green and the tightly packed crowd of people around her began to move. She was considering trying to push her way back through the crowd, away from the barrier, when a dirty looking man in ragged clothes, carrying a knapsack much like her own, plowed right into her, sending both of them across the barrier. Beatrice yelped and squeezed her eyes shut in preparation for...anything at all, really, but...nothing happened. She opened one eye experimentally, but all she got was odd looks from the other pedestrians.
"Thank you, little girl," someone hissed into her ear.
Beatrice shivered and whirled around, her wand half-drawn, but all she saw was the dirty man from before, smirking back at her as he waved a half-eaten candy bar. Then the crowd swallowed him up and she lost sight of him. What had that been about? She couldn't help but feel nervous about that man, but a car beeped its horn at her and she hurried on across the street.
Safely on the sidewalk again, Beatrice looked around, wondering if that scary man was still around, but she didn't see any sign of him. She shivered, clutching her riding broom to her chest. 'I REALLY don't like that man,' she thought to herself as she finally stopped to take a good look around.
The area Beatrice found herself in was extremely busy. It was also quite pretty, in her opinion, even flashy, not unlike Nyandoma or Eos at night, if much smaller. Bright neon signs lit up the night while strangely dressed people gathered in groups here and there in alleys and on sidewalks and hundreds, maybe thousands of people walked along under the streetlights. Even more unusual was the fact that, for the first time since arriving on Earth, nobody seemed to look at her strangely. No one stared at her dress, her witch hat only drew a few curious looks, and nobody at all looked at the riding broom she was carrying.
To be honest, it made her feel a little put out.
But still...it was really quite pretty.
Takahata, having somehow weathered Toko's gushing torrent of wedding-related girltalk, soon made his way back to his desk, where he began working on the pile of paperwork threatening to spill out of his inbox. A quick check of his computer showed nothing particularly important to deal with there, so he settled in to do some paperwork.
He had been seated maybe two minutes when an alarm sounded.
"Oh hell, it's gonna be one of those nights," Seruhiko grumbled from his desk nearby.
Takahata didn't bother to respond as he checked his computer for information.
"Something went through the barrier in the hotel district," Gandolfini said.
"Any idea what it was?" Takahata asked. The hotel district...Mahora's 'red light district', in other words. It was far less seedy than the vast majority of similarly named areas he had seen in his travels, but still...if Mahora had a center of organized crime, it would be there. He quickly accessed a street corner camera near the site of the breach, but there were too many people moving around; he couldn't see anything out of place. Oh, what a time for Asakura to be out of contact...her camera drones would have worked wonders in this case.
"The signature's garbled," Seruhiko announced. "I can't tell. Someone may have developed a way to fool our new barrier," he said, looking up at Takahata. "We'll need to get with Ayase on that."
"Make a note of it," Takahata replied, peering at his monitor. Now, who looked like they didn't belong...there. "Found it," he announced. "In front of The Ice Box."
"Got it," Seruhiko said as he quickly brought the video feed from the security camera up on the big screen at the front of the room and the four got a good look at their barrier crasher.
It was a girl in an odd looking black dress and witch's hat with a broom and a battered leather knapsack on her back. She looked to be a caucasian in her mid-to-late teens, blonde hair most of the way down her back.
"That...doesn't look much like a threat," Seruhiko said, raising an eyebrow as he watched the girl on the screen looking around in excitement as she stood in front of one of the more popular bars in the area. She turned toward the camera, showing her cute face, and Gandolfini snorted.
"Some monster," he said, amused.
"Settle down," Takahata said, half-amused himself. The girl certainly didn't look like a threat, but he knew many others who seemed just as innocent, and yet had the firepower to destroy half of Mahora if they wanted to. "We can't afford to take any chances." The room fell into silence as they watched the girl mill around on the sidewalk for a moment before wandering toward the camera and finally past it. Seruhiko did something on his computer and the view on the screen switched to a different camera, this one across the street and lower down.
"How tall would you say she is?" Seruhiko asked as he worked on the official description. "It's hard to tell with that hat..."
"Five-one, maybe five-two," Takahata replied as he glanced at the big clock on the wall and tried to recall which member of the security team would be closest to the breach. "Contact whoever's got the current patrol in that area; have them follow this girl, but tell them not to let themselves be seen."
On a shadowy rooftop, a dark figure crouched, watching people pass by below. Her sharp eyes scanned the crowd for her target and quickly found what they were looking for. She flipped her cell phone open and sent a quick text message back to HQ.
-Spotted the target. Following.-
She crept along in the shadows behind a billboard, watching the strange blonde witch-girl from across the street. She wasn't impressed. The girl obviously had no idea what she was doing; whether it was from naivete or childish excitement, the witch-girl wasn't paying enough attention to her surroundings...she didn't even seem to realize she had a small group of thugs eying her. Cocone kept to the shadows as she moved over to the next rooftop, easily keeping pace with the witch-girl on the sidewalk below.
Cocone had come a long way from the days when she had tagged along with Misora when the other girl was performing her duties as part of Mahora's secret defenses. Gone was the sad little child she had been years before; she had grown up into an exotically beautiful young woman over the past six years, and even had quite a following among her schoolmates. She was quite the serious-minded girl, avoiding gossip and usually turning down offers from her classmates to go out in the city and play in favor of further training her skills and doing what she could to help advance her long-term mission as part of the Empire's Immigration Plan. She just wished Misora was still around...
Cocone relaxed slightly as the thugs let the girl pass unmolested. She decided to send another text message.
-When is Nodoka coming back?-
-Tomorrow. Use texting for now.-
Cocone frowned and turned her attention back to the strange girl again. Miyazaki Nodoka's mental network made information exchange during patrols so much easier...while a similar effect could be created with the proper magic circles, it was far more flashy and attention-getting than Nodoka's thought-based communication method to the point where, in a situation where remaining unobserved was necessary, it was all but useless. As for other options, most of them required far too much time and ritual to use, while messenger shikigami were slow and could be easily stopped by any number of things. Thus, cell phones and text messages entered the equation. You just had to remember to turn your volume all the way down so the one you were following didn't hear your cell phone ring every few minutes...
Cocone snapped back to attention.
The blonde girl's behavior pattern had changed.
Gone was the country bumpkin behavior from before; a predator's aura had taken its place. Cocone whipped out her cell phone and had half her message typed before she spotted the girl's intended victim.
-She's stalking a woman and her daughter. Orders?-
Cocone moved to the next rooftop and quickly nocked an arrow and drew her bow, but the order to loose didn't come. She waited a tense ten seconds as the witch-girl followed the foreign woman and her daughter until they turned down an empty side street. Cocone's eyes narrowed as the witch-girl passed out of sight around the side of a building, and she was off like a flash, the arrow returned to the small quiver on her back and the small compound bow attached to the quiver harness. She made her way to a part of the street where the roofs of the two buildings opposite each other were closer together than the rest, and crossed the empty space between them with a running leap. She quickly ran across the rooftops until she ended up above the alley the witch-girl had gone into. She risked a peek down at the floor of the alley, and let herself breathe a little easier when she saw the witch-girl hadn't attacked the other two; instead, they were speaking to each other. Her cell phone vibrated against her hip, so she drew it and flipped it out to read her orders.
-Do not interfere. Your presence will only make the situation worse. Continue to watch.-
Cocone's frown deepened.
Beatrice couldn't be happier. Here she was, finally in Mahora! The whole place was awesome! Or at least, what she had seen of it so far. And so many of the people smelled absolutely delicious...! In fact...she grinned as she spotted a woman and her daughter walking along, the mother carrying a heavy travel bag and the daughter loaded down with what looked like cases for musical instruments. Beatrice slipped up behind them and followed along, waiting for her chance...and then it came when the woman abruptly turned onto a side street, followed after an awkward moment by her daughter. Beatrice followed.
When she turned the corner, she found the woman standing in the middle of the narrow alley with her back toward her while the girl stood beside her, looking confused. Beatrice slipped off her knapsack and moved closer as anticipation of the meal that was sure to follow began to take over.
"What do you want?"
Beatrice stopped. That was odd...time to improvise. "Beautiful night, isn't it?" she asked, then mentally kicked herself for such a cheesy line.
"Not in particular," the woman said, turning to face her.
Beatrice stumbled upon seeing the woman's cold expression, but continued forward, trying to mask her embarrassment. "It is quite lonesome," she said. She realized how ludicrous it sounded as soon as the words were out of her mouth, but by then it was too late to take it back, so she continued forward, locking eyes with the woman the way Sir Alexander had shown her. Unfortunately she couldn't tell if the woman was falling for her hypnosis.
The woman's eyebrow went up as Beatrice did her best to slink forward and play up the 'seductive vampire' act, just like she had practiced with Sir Alexander.
"Don't you think it would be better to—"
The next thing Beatrice knew, she was flat on her back with her hat and knapsack lying on the ground nearby. She sat up and looked around, confused. She didn't understand what had happened; one moment she had been walking up to the woman, and then—she jumped up to her feet. 'My broom! Where is my broom?!'
The answer to that question came half a second later, when the handle of her magically reinforced riding broom came smashing down upon the top of her skull.
"...ow..." she muttered from her new spot on the ground.
"Hmph. Vampire," the woman said, all but spitting the second word. Beatrice struggled to pull herself up to a seated position, but the woman struck her another tremendous blow, leaving her groaning on the pavement. "If this was my territory, I would go much further than beating you half to death with your own broom, child. But...this is not my territory. You may go, but I will only give you one warning, vampire. If you follow me or attempt to harm me or my family, I will end you. Never forget the name of Alyssa Stride, vampire." With that, the woman threw down Beatrice's broom, turned, and stalked away, leaving her lying there, dazed.
"...ow..." Beatrice muttered again as she gingerly probed the top of her head with her hand. She grabbed her hat and broom and dragged herself upright to lean against the side of the alley, her lower lip quivering. 'I won't cry, I won't!'
She cried.
Takahata felt the urge to smack his head into a wall, but settled for a sigh as he reached up to adjust his glasses and squeeze the bridge of his nose.
"Another vampire. Of course," Seruhiko said, rolling his eyes as he typed the new information into the profile he had started for their unexpected guest. "So, do you think she's here for a reason, or just sight seeing?" he asked, glancing over at Takahata.
"I don't know, but I know someone who might," Takahata said. "Excuse me while I make a phone call..."
"Ow ow ow," Beatrice muttered as she put on her hat and strapped her knapsack back on. She adjusted the brim of her hat to the proper angle to hide her tear-streaked face and made sure her grip on her broom was really strong. She didn't want it taken away again, after all; it was a gift from her former master, and she didn't know what she'd do if it were to be lost or stolen.
She went to the opposite end of the alley from which the scary Alyssa Stride woman and her daughter had gone, and peeked out at the street, looking both ways. Suddenly the bright lights and crowds of people began to take on a more sinister aspect in her mind; behind every gathering of friends was a vampire slayer, behind every smile or grin or random glance was a devious mind, plotting to hunt her down...deviously... 'I'll just leave this area and go somewhere that's more quiet,' she thought as she shivered. She hurried out of the alley and off down the sidewalk away from the bright lights of Mahora's hotel district.
Beatrice had walked perhaps ten minutes before she realized she could smell a river. She stopped and looked around, taking in her surroundings. Gone were the bright lights and bars she had seen earlier, replaced by aging apartment buildings on one side of the street and what looked to be a bunch of factories or warehouses on the other. Beatrice looked around to make sure no one was watching and hopped on her broom. She rose up above the roof level of the warehouse next to her, reveling in the light of the half-moon above. She loved flight; she always had, from the first time she had ridden on a broom. The freedom of movement, the wind in her hair, the way everything looked so different from high above...it was wonderful! She giggled in exhilaration as she looked around, trying to catch sight of moonlight reflecting on water. She spotted the river a moment later and set off toward it. The trip only took a minute or so, and she quickly descended onto the riverbank.
Beatrice smiled as she stood on the grassy slope. Even though the river stank compared to the ones in Mundus Magicus, even though trash lay scattered over the grassy slope of the riverbank, even though the water was dirty and flowing slowly, she let out a sigh of happiness. Despite running water being one of the classic vampire weaknesses, Beatrice had always loved rivers; an effect, she had no doubt, brought about by the fact that she had lived the early part of her life on the banks of the St. Lawrence River in upstate New York. Though she had only lived there for seventeen years before the incident that had made her into a vampire, they had been the years that had made her who she was. Though she knew she could never go back to how things had been, those first seventeen years of her life had been some of the best, and whenever she had a chance, she would sit down on a riverbank and let her mind drift back to those days.
"Ah..."
Beatrice jolted back to her feet and whirled to face the one who had spoken, and found herself staring. There, in front of her, stood a girl. She was an inch or so shorter than Beatrice herself, with fairly short brown hair. She didn't look Japanese, either.
She also smelled pretty good.
Beatrice took a step forward, smiling at the girl. "Hello," she said, trying to give the girl a winning smile.
"...hello..." the girl said nervously. Nevertheless, she held her ground.
"What's your name?" Beatrice asked as she took another step. She was really quite thirsty after traveling all day, and a little blood would be a nice treat...
"I-I'm Caro, Caro Shaw," the girl replied, still holding her ground as Beatrice drew closer.
"Caro Shaw? That's a pretty name. Mine is Beatrice Honeydew."
"That's...a pretty name," Caro said, embarrassed by the woman's compliment, mild though it was.
"I think so too," Beatrice said as she finally drew within arm's length of the girl. "Tell me Caro, what do you think about vampires?" she asked as she lunged.
She hadn't intended to hurt the girl or turn her or anything, just take a little blood and leave her mark on the girl's neck, because wasn't the 'kiss of the vampire' just the most romantic thing? It was one of the best things about being a vampire...! She had thought so since the first time she read Dracula!
Sadly, it was not to be.
The girl screamed and shoved her away. Hard.
It took a moment for Beatrice's mind to catch up with the mass of pain that had been her stomach, or the fact that she was now flying through the air backwards, or that another shape was moving alongside her, this one a dark skinned girl with silver hair and weird eyes. The second girl kicked her in mid-air, and Beatrice's body hit a telephone pole and wrapped around it. She hit the ground an instant later and let out a moan as she curled up into the fetal position.
"No," the second figure said, then jumped away, leaving her there alone.
Cocone watched as the vampire got the stuffing beaten out of herself for a second time, and couldn't help but feel a little sorry for her. After all, running into those two demons out on a training run so late at night? Still, vampire. She shook her head and let out a sigh as she took out her cell phone and texted the latest development to HQ. She settled in to wait for the vampire to recover.
It was a fairly long wait. Eventually, however, the vampire stopped sniffling and dragged herself to her feet. She stood by the telephone pole for a moment, swaying as if she might faint, then staggered down to the river's edge to retrieve her hat from a pool of stagnant water there. The vampire woman was still wearing that ridiculous knapsack, and it took her a good ten minutes to find her broom. She was just starting to move on down the street when Cocone's cell phone vibrated against her hip. She drew it out of her pocket and flipped it open to read the text message she had just received.
-Incoming from the east. Situation urgent. Prevent new subject's contact with target at all costs.-
The cell phone went back in her pocket and an instant later she was sprinting through the shadows and scrambling up a drainpipe to get to a better vantage point. She scrambled along the rooftop and jumped the gap to the next one, rolling to cushion the blow of the landing, and ran to the edge of the roof to look out at the street, watching the vampire woman just long enough to make sure she was still heading straight before moving on past her, trying to spot the 'new subject'. It took her a moment, but when she did, her throat went dry.
Cocone felt like swearing.
The 'new subject' was none other than Mahora's resident half-schizophrenic lover of gardening tools, Maple Birdsong, out for a midnight walk. She didn't appear to be armed, but Cocone knew that didn't mean much, not for the girl in question. Maple Birdsong tended to be very destructive when fighting, and Cocone was quite sure she wouldn't take well to being accosted by a vampire. HQ had said the situation was urgent, and to prevent any contact between the crazy girl and the vampire...now the only problem was how to accomplish such a feat. Simply telling Maple to go somewhere else would only net her a confused look and total disregard of her order; the only option was to go after the vampire instead, but that could jeopardize everything if it wasn't handled properly...
"Well hello there."
Cocone did swear that time. She looked over the edge of the roof to see the idiot vampire had seen Maple coming and zipped up to her. If Maple started fighting her, she wouldn't hold back like the others had done, much less stop so quickly. She pulled out her bow and nocked an arrow, but hesitated. What to do...what could she do? Her cell phone vibrated again.
Beatrice almost didn't take the opportunity when it arrived. She was tired, sore, and dispirited from being beaten easily twice in a row, and almost passed the next opportunity by when it showed itself.
The girl she was looking at seemed exhausted. The way she carried herself as if the weight of the world was pressing down on her, the way her feet dragged as she walked, the weariness in her expression...surely, surely this was one who wouldn't be able to hurt her? The strange girl would probably welcome a hospital visit, Beatrice thought. Her blood wouldn't be as sweet as someone who was strong in magic, but there was nothing wrong with a little plainness from time to time, was there? Not to Beatrice's thinking. So she made her way down the street as quickly as she could and stepped out of the shadows in front of the girl. "Well hello there."
The tired girl just looked at her.
"I-I said, 'well hello there,'" Beatrice tried again. When the girl still didn't respond, Beatrice cocked her head to the side. "It's generally considered polite to respond when someone greets you, you know," she said playfully, winking at the girl. The girl's eyes locked on hers, and something in them sent a shiver down her spine.
"You..." the girl said.
"...me?" Beatrice asked. She had a sudden urge to back away slowly, without making any sudden movements, almost as if she had just come upon some sort of rabid animal out in the woods.
"I knew something was out here. You are a vampire," the girl said, narrowing her eyes.
Beatrice blinked at the sudden statement as she tried to formulate a plan to deal with the girl. "W-well of course not! That's absurd! Vampires, in this day and age!"
The girl just looked at her.
Beatrice swallowed the nervous lump in her throat. She definitely felt she was walking a tightrope here. The situation had somehow been reversed without her realizing it, and now she felt as if she should be the one to run screaming into the night. Her! A proud member of the Great Vampire Lords! The youngest ever! 'Like hell!' she thought. She clenched her teeth and stalked closer to the girl, closing the space between them until they were standing barely a foot apart. She had to look up slightly to meet the girl's eyes, but she put everything she had into the glare she shot at her.
"Maybe you're right," she said. "Maybe I am a vampire, a creature of the night that crouches on rooftops and stalks maidens in their beds! Maybe I'm a vampire, and maybe I'm thirsty! And maybe I want some of your bloo—"
Beatrice's rant was cut off when the girl punched her in the throat.
She staggered back, clutching at her neck, but the strange girl went right after her and backhanded her across the face, knocking off her hat, then wrenched her riding broom away. Beatrice had barely managed to recover from being hit across the face when the girl drove the end of the broom into Beatrice's stomach, dropping her to her knees as she wrapped her arms around her middle. The girl then swung the broom with tremendous force into the side of Beatrice's head; Beatrice let out a cry as she was knocked down to her side on the pavement. The girl hit her again twice more as she lay on the ground, then swung the broom away with all her might, sending it flying halfway down the block where it bounced several times before coming to rest in a street gutter. Beatrice tried to drag herself up, but the girl kicked her in the side of the knee, making her cry out again and dropping her back down. The girl then grabbed her by the hair on the sides of her head and drove Beatrice's face into her knee. Beatrice cried out a third time and fell back on the ground.
"Wait!" someone cried out down the street.
Beatrice barely had time to absorb the fact that someone else was trying to stop what was happening before she was kicked in the side of the head. Lights exploded in her brain, and the next thing she knew, she was looking up at a familiar face.
"J-Jonus...?" she muttered.
"That's right," he said, looking down at her with a guarded expression.
"She tried to attack me," someone said nearby, and Beatrice fearfully sat up. She immediately laid back down, holding her aching head; that girl had really done a number on her, and so quickly, too...!
"Why are you here, Beatrice?" Jonus asked her, his tone deadly serious.
Beatrice tried to focus on him, but her vision was all blurry and going in and out of focus. "To...to save you...S-sir Alexander s-said, h-he said...h-he said you p-probably needed he-help..." Beatrice said as her breath started to hitch and she felt her lower lip start to quiver. 'No! I can't cry, I'm on a rescue mission! I'm an adult! A vampire! Vampire's don't cry!' she told herself, but it was no use. Tears started to fall and she covered her face to hide them.
Then, much to her surprise, Jonus knelt down beside her and pulled her half upright against him, so her head was lying against his chest. "Child..." he said sadly. And that was it; the floodgates broke and the tears poured down as she cried into his chest.
Jonus looked from the crying girl to Carrick and the other two, the human girl who had just beaten a vampire so badly she cried, and the girl who had pulled her off before she could kill her...Cocone, she had said her name was when she showed up earlier to show him and Carrick where exactly Beatrice was after that call from Takahata. He sighed. He was too old for this sort of thing; sure, Beatrice Honeydew was a member of the Great Vampire Lords with all the power and rights and prestige that implied, but she was also a mere child by vampire terms, barely over a hundred. She should never have joined them at that age! Her inexperience would make her a mere pawn among the other Great Vampire Lords, something to be used until it was no longer useful and then disposed of like a piece of trash or a broken toy.
The trouble was that Beatrice would never have survived out in the world on her own, not as she was when she had been invited to join them. She was a little better now, true, but still... When she finally got control of herself and her sobs became mere sniffles, he held her out at arm's length and made her look him in the eye. "Beatrice," he said.
Beatrice looked at him, then away as if embarrassed for crying on him, then reluctantly forced herself to meet his gaze. "Y-yes?"
"Beatrice," Jonus said, making sure she understood that what he was about to say was very important. "You have no idea what you have gotten into, here. You say Stratos sent you, but why are you taking orders from the others? You are one of us now; you don't have to take orders from anyone now that your sire is dead."
Beatrice looked back up at him, but whatever she was about to say was interrupted as Cocone chose that moment to speak up.
"All three of you are coming with me to answer some questions," she said, as if completely unaware of the absurdity of a human child issuing orders to two of the most powerful vampires alive and an intelligent ghoul. Nevertheless, in exchange for his life, Jonus had agreed to be 'put on a leash', as Carrick called it; he was bound to follow the orders of those who were in charge in the city.
"Come, Beatrice. There are some people you will have to meet, if you are to stay here," he said.
"Stay? But-"
"As much as I dislike the man, Sir Alexander Stratos is not a fool. He sent you here for a reason. Come, it's time to go." Jonus turned to Cocone and looked past her to where Maple Birdsong stood, scowling, twenty feet away. When she noticed him watching, she turned and walked away, the usual tired droop returning to her shoulders. But, for just a moment, he had had a glimpse of something else, the predator hidden under the guise of a tired, malnourished girl. To say they were like the eyes of a griffin or a dragon would be the same as saying the sea was a little wet, or a winter in the north was a little chilly. Jonus Hart, vampire of several thousand years, felt a shiver run down his spine. Whatever else she appeared to be, that girl was a monster.
"Let's go," he said, careful to keep his tone of voice under control.
"So," Takahata said as he watched Seruhiko go to work on charming the vampire girl in the interrogation room on the other side of the glass, "you say she is harmless, and yet she's a member of the same group that sent you?"
Jonus watched Seruhiko expertly manipulate his fellow vampire until she was blushing shyly, and heaved a sigh. He glanced over at Takahata. If there was anyone in Mahora he felt he could relax around, it would be the man who stood just within arm's reach by the two-way mirror, holding an unlit cigarette in his mouth as he patted down his pockets, no doubt looking for a lighter. Takahata was a good man; Jonus knew the type. Back when he had been a knight, he had worked with the greatest concentration of good men he had ever seen, and perhaps the best king he had ever met. Those days were long gone now, and he bore a great part of the blame for it. Jonus idly reached over and shot a tiny jet of flame at the end of the cigarette.
"Thanks," Takahata said.
Jonus grunted in reply, and they stood watching the interrogation silently for a long moment.
"Beatrice isn't like the rest of us," he finally said.
"How so?"
Jonus paused. How to describe the girl's innocence? Her naivete? The way she was so wrapped up in the sheer romance of being a vampire, and yet had never managed to kill a single person?
"She should never have joined us, or even been turned," he finally said. "She is too kind, a dreamer. Easily manipulated. If her sire hadn't taken responsibility as soon as he realized what he had done..." What? Would he have taken over Beatrice's care himself? Jonus didn't know, but he did knew he couldn't have left her as she was; something about her drew his sympathy in a way no other being had done in the past fifteen hundred years. He supposed the way he felt about her was not unlike the way one might feel about a favored niece, or perhaps a favorite grandchild.
Takahata watched Seruhiko and Beatrice interact silently, letting Jonus gather his thoughts.
"Stratos sent her here to get her out of the way."
Jonus realized Takahata was looking at him, so he continued. "There are...factions...among the Great Vampire Lords, and the situation is becoming tense. With the loss of three of our number in the past six years, we are severely weakened. I tell you this," he said, turning to Takahata, "in the hope that you will not spread this information, but rather keep it as secret as possible." He waited for Takahata to nod before he continued. "First was her sire, Atton Bright, one of our oldest members. He was murdered, betrayed by the members of an opposing faction of our group." Jonus's expression turned to a glare as he recalled stumbling upon the scene of the crime, Atton's body lying on the ground, already turning to dust while Chaser Felix, Dexter Marlowe, and Slater Downs all stood around it. He knew what had happened; it was plain as day. Nevertheless, he hadn't had any way to prove it, so the issue hadn't even made its way to Zeph Castor, First among the Great Vampire Lords. It wasn't even as if such a thing was unheard of, or even unusual...many of them had fallen in a similar manner over the centuries, though the last had been over two hundred years ago.
"Who were the others?" Takahata asked.
Jonus grinned in sly satisfaction. "Dexter Marlowe and Chaser Felix, both of whom were killed by someone I believe you know."
"Oh?" Takahata said, raising an eyebrow as he glanced over at Jonus.
"Indeed," Jonus said, grinning at the fact of their deaths. "Her name, I believe, is Kasuga Misora, and she is now ranked high among the greatest vampire slayers to ever live."
Takahata's eyebrows shot up at that. He had known Misora's dorm in Rome was attacked by a vampire whom she later killed, but he wasn't aware of the vampire's name or status, much less that she had killed another at some point after that. He would have to contact the church and find out what else he hadn't been told... "Has this been confirmed?"
"Yes," Jonus said. "She, alone, was responsible for the deaths of two of our number. Despite Evangeline's opinion of us, not just any vampire is allowed to join the Great Vampire Lords. In all our history, less than a hundred vampires have ever been admitted to our group; only the best, or," he said, looking back at Beatrice on the other side of the glass, "those who have the potential to be among the best, are allowed to join."
"What about the factions?" Takahata asked.
"There are three major factions, though there are alliances among us as individuals that ignore faction lines," Jonus said. "The first, and most logical, faction is headed by our leader and founder, Zeph Castor. He believes we should continue on as we are, living in the shadows and only interfering with mortal matters when the opportunity for profit presents itself. This is the faction that I, myself, am part of."
Takahata let out a puff of cigarette smoke.
"The second is far more idealistic, unrealistically so in my opinion," Jonus said. "It is lead by Sir Alexander Stratos, who believes we should try to integrate into the rest of society, or failing that, arrange to live openly in peace. While it is a nice dream, it is unworkable in any large way. There are too few vampires, and everyone knows our reputation," he said, letting the tips of his fangs poke out as he made an unpleasant grin. "This is the faction Beatrice's sire belonged to. While she hasn't declared support of any particular faction, I believe this is the one she would support if pressed, if only because she thinks she loves Stratos."
"What about the third?" Takahata asked.
Jonus sighed. "I had hoped to avoid speaking of that one, if possible. But since you insist... The third faction is led by a vampire called Judas Grimm." He glanced over at Takahata to see if the name had the effect he had intended. He nodded to himself when Takahata stiffened up and turned to look directly at him.
"Judas Grimm is one of your members?" Takahata asked, his tone dead serious.
Jonus nodded. "Yes; Judas Grimm, the number one most wanted vampire in Mundus Magicus since the disappearance of Evangeline A. K. McDowell, is one of our number." He met Takahata's gaze for a long moment before looking back at Beatrice. "Judas Grimm is only interested in killing those who fight him and enslaving the rest. The two killed by Kasuga Misora were friends of his. He is one of us, and before I left he began to show an interest in Beatrice. Or rather, in her potential for power."
"Power?"
"While she will never be as effective due to her temperament, she has a lot of power and will likely be on par with Evangeline herself one day," he said. "Her magic capacity is tremendous, and will only grow from here. She is, like several of our other members and Evangline herself, considered a 'True Blood' vampire. What more could Judas Grimm want than the perfect piece of magic artillery for his little army?"
"And so she was sent here to keep her safe."
Jonus nodded. "You have no idea what sort of reputation this place has gained in the underworld. They say the city of Mahora as it is right now could hold off the combined might of half the nations of this world. They say any one of the dozens upon dozens of mages and warriors who live in this city could take out a small army on their own. They say a genius mage known only as 'Ayase' has devised magitech barriers capable of holding off anything short of a nuclear explosion, and some claim they can even block that. All embellishments, I'm afraid, but they are not without a grain of truth, as I saw for myself during that...unpleasant incident some time ago. When one of your residents is Evangeline A. K. McDowell, and she actually behaves herself, well...rumors get started." Jonus let out a sigh as he watched Beatrice blushing furiously at Seruhiko on the other side of the glass. "Where better to send a naïve child who will grow to have the power to influence nations? This city is, without a doubt, one of the safest places in any of the worlds. One would have to be a madman to try and breach its defenses sober."
The dirty man in the ragged clothes darted from the shadow of one building to another, avoiding light anywhere he could.
"Where are you, where are you... I know you're here somewhere, I can smell it..." he muttered to himself as he scrambled halfway up the side of a run-down apartment building and hung there with one hand while the other held a half-eaten candy bar. He took another bite of his candy bar and hung there, looking around, cocking his head as if listening to something only he could hear. "Where are you...there." He let go of the side of the building and let himself fall the thirty feet between him and the ground, and landed on his feet. He shoved the last of the candy bar in his mouth, wiped the chocolate on his hands on the front of his dirty, chocolate-stained shirt, and took off at a dead run for the little house he had spotted a block or two over. A short time later, he stood in front of thehouse.
It wasn't impressive in any way or even notable except for the fact that it had a rather sizable garden behind it with a series of padlocks on the door of the shed that sat beside it. The man ignored the garden and the shed, however, and slipped through the shadows up to the front door. He gently tried the doorknob, careful to not make a single sound, but it was locked. He paused a moment, looking around to see if anyone was around, and shoved the doorknob through the door. He paused to listen as the shattered pieces of the doorknob fell to the floor inside the house, but there was no cry of alarm from inside. Instead, he could hear...breathing. A heartbeat, slowing gaining speed.
He grinned.
He pushed the door open and strolled inside as if he owned the place, pushing it shut after him. He poked around in the small entry room for a moment, then moved on to the next room, which appeared to serve as a living room. He poked around in the pantry for a moment before coming up with a can of beans, which he ripped open and devoured. He wiped what he had spilled on his face away with his sleeve and tossed the can aside, unheeding of the racket it made in the otherwise quiet house when it bounced off the floor. He poked around some more until he found half a loaf of bread, and devoured that with the same carelessness he had shown with the can of beans, leaving crumbs and chunks of bread where they fell. He checked the small refrigerator next, but didn't find anything of interest except a couple plastic jugs of water, which he tossed aside. One of the jugs cracked as it hit the floor, spilling water all over.
"I gotta say, you can't keep a pantry full for shit," he said aloud. He made a toothy grin as the heartbeat sped up at his words. He crept toward the two doors he saw on the other side of the room. He knew full well that the owner of the heartbeat was behind the one on the left, but he was enjoying his game too much to just cut to the chase, so he approached the one on the right first, taking care to make his footsteps loud enough to be heard by the hidden listener.
"Are you...in here?" he said loudly, throwing the door on the right open so hard that it bounced off the wall, the doorknob leaving a round hole in the drywall. He stepped into the bathroom and took a moment to look around. "Nice pink shower curtains you've got here," he said, ripping them down along with the bar that held them up. Next, he yanked the mirror off the front of the medicine cabinet and swept the contents out so they fell into the sink and onto the floor, and kicked over the wastebasket. "You know," he said loudly enough to be heard all through the small house, "this is pretty fun. I could get used to a little vandalism from time to time." He picked up the mirror and smashed it against the corner of the sink. "Oops, that's seven years' worth of bad luck...heh."
He exited the bathroom and crept over to stand in front of the bedroom door, behind which the house's occupant waited, her heart beating quickly. He reared back and kicked the door open, tearing it off its hinges to fall into the surprisingly small room, made to seem even smaller by the addition of two western-style beds.
"Heeeere's Johnny!" he said, poking his head around the door jamb. The man made an ugly grin as he eyed the girl lying on the far bed. She wasn't moving, but her heart was positively racing. "What's the matter, didn't like it? Wasn't that funny? You know, from that movie with the guy in the hotel that goes crazy? The guy went crazy, not the hotel. Or maybe it was the hotel, I dunno. It wasn't really clear. Yeah, that movie sucked," he said as he sauntered into the room. He ripped the worn sheets and blanket off the first bed and threw them on the floor as he looked at the girl lying on the second bed. "I saw it last year in some guy's house after I killed 'im. Man, that guy had some good pizza," he said as he tossed the broken door out of the way and moved to stand over the girl in the bed. He glanced around, spotted a decomposing night stand with a little old fashioned radio and a lamp on top of it, and slapped both items off of it; the lamp shattered against a bedpost while the radio bounced off the wall and some of the plastic panels popped off. The girl's heartbeat sped up even more and the man laughed.
"Liked that? Then how's this?" he asked as he yanked the blanket off the girl and spread it out on the floor. "You know," he said musingly as he stood over her, "this is usually where the scantily clad teenager in her pajamas runs away, only to be hunted down and murdered messily by the killer. What's the matter little girl? Are you too stupid? Are you in a coma? You're really taking the fun out of this. I've been looking for you for six years, you know that? Six long friggin years since you and that little bitch sister of yours got away, and this is how it ends? Pathetic," he said, lightly slapping the girl's face. "Good thing that idiot vampire showed up when she did though," he said as he eyed the girl on the bed for a moment. "I was getting ready to risk going through the barrier myself, but she showed up at just the right time to distract it." He scooped the girl up and unceremoniously dumped her on the floor and rolled her up in the blanket. "Damn shame," he said as he hoisted her up and threw her over his shoulder. "I kinda wanted to play with your sister a bit, see how long it'd take 'er to die. It's been a while since I could really play with a human, you know? Demons just can't get a break anymore..." he said with a sigh and a regretful shake of his head, moving through the house as he talked.
He stepped out through the front door, careful to pull it shut after him, and trotted down the steps and up the street until he disappeared from view around a corner.
Maple birdsong turned off the sidewalk to walk the short distance to the house she shared with her sister. It wasn't much, but the two of them didn't need much, and she didn't want to impose on anyone. It wasn't that she didn't trust anyone here, it was more that she just didn't want to drag anyone else into their problems; she had made that mistake six years ago in America, and look what it had gotten the last group of people to help her? None of them were listed in the phone book anymore, that was for sure.
She moved up the steps onto the front porch and pulled out her keys. She was so distracted by the vampire incident and the feeling of dread she had been suffering from for the past few weeks that it took her a moment to notice that her doorknob was gone, nothing but the round hole in the door where it used to be gave any hint of its existence.
Maple's blood ran cold. "T...Trinity? Trin? A-are you there?" she said, the awful silence of the house was the only response. "T-Trin?" she asked again as her voice cracked. She pushed the door open and looked down at the broken pieces of her doorknob as a sense of disbelief washed over her. 'This can't be happening,' she thought faintly. 'I'm just dreaming again; the demons couldn't have found this place and taken her, there's no way.' She was dimly aware that her mind had started to retreat to a faraway place to protect itself, leaving little but her senses behind. As such, she could see every little detail of what the intruder had done in startling clarity, from the discarded can of beans to the jug of water splashed across the floor to the door of the refrigerator, left standing open by the wall.
She refused to look at the empty doorframe that lead to the bedroom. Instead, she wandered over to the bathroom, where medicine bottles, trash, and bits of broken mirror lay strewn over the floor and the fallen shower curtain.
"This can't be happening," she mumbled aloud as she stumbled back out of the bathroom and the empty doorframe caught her attention. Her face went even more pale than usual as she saw the empty bed where her sister should have lain. "N-no, no Trin, y-you can't...you can't..." She let out a low whine as her legs gave out and she plopped down on the floor next to the empty can of beans as she stared through the empty doorway at her sister's bed. "N-n-no, th-they can't have taken you, they can't..."
Author's Notes: Damn. Ah, anyway...let's see... Ah! Cocone; how underused you are in fanfiction. Anyway, if you're wondering what the 'Empire Immigration Plan' is, I got it from a place in the manga when she is given the title "Empire Immigration Plan Test Subject #18". As it's never explained in the manga, I'll give my version (influenced heavily by online speculation): Cocone's at least half human (possibly full) and a test subject from the Hellas Empire in the magic world, sent to Earth to find out whether the citizens of the empire will be able to immigrate in the event that Mundus Magicus collapses. Keep in mind that since Negi's group never went to Mundus Magicus in the summer of 2003 in the Still Waters universe, the situation there was never addressed and even though Cosmo Entelecheia's plan was stopped long before it became a threat by the coincidental appearance of Jack Rakan at the right place and time, it's still a very real danger.
Also, Takahata and the teachers and faculty who took part in the defense of Mahora in the festival arc of the manga! I always picture Seruhiko as a sort of Richard Hammond (from Top Gear) kinda guy who tries too hard. Or something.
Also also, I finally gave some information on the Great Vampire Lords! Aren't you happy? Or not... Misora fought Dexter Marlowe the short story "How To Fight Zombies" on this site, and fought Chaser Felix during "Misora's Arc" in SW3 Book 1, also on this site.
What else...oh, the demon. His brother was one of the antagonists of "Misora's Arc" in SW3 Book 1, and he himself appeared earlier in this book, in Chapter 6: Festival First Day Part 2: Siblings. As for what happened to Trinity, well...you'll just have to wait and see, won't you?
At this point there are four more chapter estimated for Book 2, though that number could always increase if something needs to be added or a chapter gets too big and needs to be split. Look forward to Book 3!